Recruitment Drive
by Blackbird
Summary: The Titans decide to hold auditions for new young heroes for the ever expanding team.  That may prove to be a big mistake.
1. INtroductions Part 1

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans, they are owned by DC comics, Cartoon Network and WB entertainment. I do, however, own the OCs contained within and use of them without my permission is strictly prohibited. You got that? _

**Recruitment Drive**

**Chapter 1: Introductions Part 1**

Over the last couple of years the citizens of Jump City have become accustomed to odd sights. The center of which usually involving the five young heroes living in the giant "T" on the small, man made island in their harbor. So when there was a gathering of several garishly clad teenagers assembled out side of the letter-shaped building, those who _could_ see it didn't really give it much thought. Especially since in recent months it seemed the team had gone from five heroes to literally dozens and they all seemed to come and go as they pleased.

However, if someone _were_ to look closer, they would notice a giant white banner hung over the entrance to Titans Tower with "TITANS RECRUITMENT DRIVE TODAY!" written in huge, black letters. They might also notice the long table in front for the door where the original five Teen Titans sat to look out over the small mass of potential candidates. Robin sat in the middle of the room with Starfire to his right and Cyborg to his left. Capping off each end of the table where Raven and Beast Boy, with gothic girl sitting next to Starfire and the green changeling sitting next to his best friend Cyborg. They all sat in silence as they continued to stare at the small mass of superhero hopefuls in front of them.

"Sooo...why are we doing this again?" Raven finally spoke up in her usual unenthused tone.

"I think it's because Robin wants to get rid of those extra communicators we still have laying around," Beast Boy stated in a matter-of-factly tone.

Robin gritted his teeth as he leaned forward so he could see Beast Boy around Cyborg's massive frame and jab an accusatory finger his way.

"First of all, I didn't give away _that_ many communicators," the Boy Wonder started in his own defense, "and secondly we're doing this because everyday there are more and more young heroes appearing in the world and they need our help and guidance to help them reach their full potential."

"Which goes right along with your 'Teen Titans Unlimited' thing, right?" Cyborg asked.

"Exactly," Robin nodded in satisfaction.

"See BB? He had a good reason after all," the cybernetic teen remarked to the green boy on his left then turned back to this other friend with an obnoxious grin. "You _still_ gave away a lot of communicators though."

Robin growled and crossed his arms over his chest in huff.

"Let's just get started," he muttered.

"Oh yes I am most anxious to meet our new friends," Starfire said cheerfully.

In the face of the redhead's usually overwhelming enthusiasm, Robin couldn't help but crack a smile and quickly relaxed again. He reached out to snag the clipboard and pen in front of them, the other Titans mimicking his movements, before he addressed the small crowd.

"Everyone, may I have your attention please!" he called out to them.

The chatter among the group slowly died down as they turned their full attention to the table in front of them.

"Thank you," Robin stated with a small nod. "Now if you could all please form a line we'll have you step up to the table so you can tell us your name and abilities."

"And whatever else you want to tell us. Back story, funny jokes, sing a song, maybe a trick or two," Beast Boy added jokingly, earning him a quick glare from Robin. "What? I'm just trying to lighten the mood."

"I'm wondering why they need to tell us any funny jokes when you haven't told a single one since you've been on the team," Raven mocked.

"Oh come on Raven, you _know_ I've told some great jokes over the years!" he shot back.

The pale skinned girl shook her head. "Not to my knowledge."

"Guys, please," Robin interrupted, holding his hands up as a signal for them to stop. "Let's get started with this. Will the first candidate please step forward?"

They were all a bit surprised when a slender, black haired girl walked towards the table in what seemed to be a cheap Wonder Woman ripoff Halloween costume. The top was a bright red that had a gold feather pattern over her modest bust with a red star in the middle. The feathers were connected to a matching "belt" around the waist of the outfit by a stripe going down her taught stomach. The bottom was a blue star spangled mini skirt. The costume was completed by a pair of white boots with red stars on the heels, red gloves, and a small red cape tied around her neck.

The Titans stared at her unsurely for several second as they tried to come up with something to say to the excited girl.

"Umm...no offense, but we already have a Wonder Girl," Cyborg finally spoke up.

"Actually, you have two," the girl corrected with a smile. "But you don't have to worry because despite the costume, I'm _not_ trying to be a third Wonder Girl. You can call me Liberty Girl!"

"Right," Raven muttered, unconvinced. "Look this try is for real superheroes, not just someone who went out and bought a cheap Halloween costume."

Liberty Girl's expression fell as she looked down at her outfit.

"It wasn't _that_ cheap," she pouted softly.

"Please Raven, do not be rude," Starfire chided her teammate before looking at the Titan hopeful. "I believe we should at least give her a chance to try out. That _is_ why were are holding these auditions, is it not?"

"Starfire's right," Robin nodded before he studied Liberty Girl more closely. "So then...Liberty Girl, what exactly can you do?"

"Well I don't actually have any superpowers, but I'm teaching myself karate and I've learned some good wrestling moves," she explained then paused as she tried to think of something else. She quick snapped her fingers and smiled broadly. "Oh and I've been told I'm extremely lucky if that counts for anything."

"Well obviously you don't need to have powers to be a superhero," Robin explained with a smile. "As for the other things, we have plenty of people that can help train you if you make the cut. For now you can just stand over there until we get everyone else signed in," he noted, gesturing to a flat area near the left of the table.

"Cool. Thanks so much!" Liberty Girl cheered before the happily moved over to the "waiting area".

"Off to a _rousing_ start already," Raven snarked as she twirled the pen in her hand.

"Indeed we are!" Starfire remarked cheerfully, either oblivious to or ignoring Raven's sarcasm. "Will the next candidate please step forward?"

Despite the semi-organized line, two of the hopefuls stepped up to the table. Though their ease around each other made it obvious that both girls were friends, they're expressions and body language made it easy to tell their personalities where strikingly different. The girl on the left had slightly darker, almost tanned looking, skin and her expression was much more reserved and slightly anxious. Her costume was in all dark blue broken up only by the silver zipper going up her armless and legless body suit. She also wore a light gray utility belt with two dark blue holsters on her upper thighs that held her gunmetal gray Escrima Sticks. She wore shin high, lace up boots with steel toes on them and gloves that ended in elbow pads. A silver clasp around her neck held a long, cape was draped over her shoulders and hung just below the tops of her boots. A domino mask covered her eyes while her shoulder length black hair framed her face save for one strand that feel down between her eyes.

The girl to her right was a few inches taller and more toned. Her dark crop top T-shirt revealed her quite impressive abs and firm arms. The shirt itself was embroiled with a large, golden, stylized "U" with a smaller, matching "G" inside it. Two small, circular clasps held a long, knee length cape to her shoulders. It was a dark green color that matched her shirt and gloves but also had a black trim to match her mini skirt and knee high boots. Her bright, blonde hair was mostly slicked back to fall past her shoulders save for three strains which hung just over her right eye.

"Hi, I'm Ultragirl," she greeted, her light green eyes sparkling brightly with enthusiasm.

"And I'm Siren," the girl dressed in blue said with a quick wave. "It's a pleasure to meet you all."

"I know, I've been reading up on you two. You've done some good work out in Chicago," Robin remarked with an approving smile.

"Oh yeah, you're the two that are kinda like Batgirl and Supergirl, right?" Cyborg asked cheerfully.

Unfortunately, this statement made both girls let out loud, irritated groans. Siren place a hand over her face while Ultragirl ran her hands through her hair in frustration.

"No I'm _not_ like Supergirl!" she shouted. "Yes we have similar powers and we're both blonde, but that doesn't mean anything!"

"Well you _do_ kinda have the same outfits too," Cyborg offered weakly.

"GAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Ultragirl screamed again, pulling her hair more.

"At least _yours_ kinda make sense," Siren remarked. "I mean why do I keep getting these Batgirl comparisons? I mean Batgirl's right over there!" She pointed to the black clad figure near the back of the line. "Do she and I look _anything_ alike?"

"I think that has more to do with that fact that you started out in Gotham than anything else," Robin tried to explain.

Siren stopped her ranting and blinked at that remark.

"Wait, you _know_ about that?" she asked in amazement.

"Well...let's just say I happen to know someone very important there," the Boy Wonder smirked.

"Oh. Right. Stupid me."

"Wait..." Beast Boy mused, as he continued to stare at the duo. "Oh I know who you guys are! You two also team up with that big monster out in Chicago too, right?"

"Yeah...yeah that's us," Siren admitted with a sigh.

"To be fair, she's not _always_ a monster," Ultragirl clarified as she straightened out her hair a bit. "And she's not _that_ bad."

"No, just a bit..._excitable_ and saddled with extremely unfortunate powers."

"I dunno, I think it'd be kinda cool to turn into a monster," Beast Boy remarked.

"You already _have_ turned into a few different monsters, remember?" Raven sneered.

The green changeling's expression quickly fell and he shudders as some rather unpleasant memories came flooding back to him.

"Oh yeah. Not cool at all," he whimpered. "Still, I think that one out in Chicago's pretty cool. How come you didn't bring her with you?"

Siren cringed a bit. "Well we," she paused when she saw Ultragirl glaring at her, "_I_ thought it might not be for the best to bring her here just yet."

"Hate to say it, but I agree with you," Robin stated. "I'm sure she's a good person and hero and all but I don't think we're equipped to deal with someone like her just yet."

"You know I bet I could whip something up that _could _deal with her," Cyborg mused as he rubbed his mechanical chin.

He then noticed the odd looks the others were giving him.

"I mean training wise of course," he corrected sheepishly.

"We'll...think about it later," Robin muttered then wrote down Siren and Ultragirl's names on the paper in front of him. "For now you two can join Liberty Girl over there."

They nodded then moved over to the other hopeful as the Titans followed Robin's lead and wrote down their names on their own lists.

"So who's next?" Cyborg ask excitedly.

"That'd be me!" an equally excited, and hyper, voice spoke up.

The five Teen Titans looked up to see a slender boy dressed in a red and white body suit standing before them. The red half of the costume consisted of a stripe that ran down the center of his body and contained a few jagged lines of his chest which resembled a lighting bolt. A pair of yellow tinted goggles was built into his mask while the mask itself was open on top to let his shaggy, auburn hair to hang lose. It was also opened around his mouth to show off his energetic grin as he stood in front of the Titans.

"So who are you?" Raven asked unexcitedly.

"Name's Impulse!" he announced, pointing a thumb at himself.

"Cool name," Beast Boy nodded in approval but then frowned a bit. "But why does your costume look all...Flashy? I mean not 'flashy' flashy but, you know, Flashy in the sense that...um...uh...hold I had it here..."

"He means your costume looks a bit like the Flash's costume," Raven quickly clarified.

"Or our own companion Kid Flash," Starfire added.

"Yeah, what they said," Beast Boy agreed, gesturing to the two girls.

"Oh that's easy, it's cause I'm related to one of the Flashes," Impulse revealed nonchalantly.

"You are?" Robin asked, suspiciously.

"Totally! I'm from the 31st Century and my grandfather is the..." he paused for a second in thought, "second Flash and I'm pretty sure I'm related to the current Kid Flash. I was sent back in time to...um...learn how to be a better hero."

"Aaaw man! I _hate_ time travel stuff!" Beast Boy whined and fell over onto the table.

"Hey at least _you_ never actually traveled through time!" Cyborg retorted. "It's not as fun as the movies make it out to be."

"Indeed it is _most_ unpleasant," Starfire agreed, shuddering a bit at the thought of her own time traveling adventure.

"Really? Didn't seem all that bad to me," Impulse mused, holding a finger to his chin.

"Well anyway!" Cyborg spoke up, interrupting the speedster's thoughts. "If you want to just wait over there by those lovely ladies, we'll get back to you once we sign in everybody else."

Impulse nodded then super sped over to where Liberty Girl, Ultragirl and Siren were already waiting.

"So I'm next, right?" the next candidate asked excitedly as he stepped forward.

The Titans were taken aback by the boy's rather...well...demonic appearance. It fit the classical image of a demon to almost be cliche. He had the red skin, the horns, the arrow tipped tail, they could even see the hint of fangs as he grinned widely. Unlike the classic demons, however, he had normal legs instead of cloven hooves. Legs that were covered by a pair of black, leather pants with a chain belt which were the only clothes he actually had on. Another difference was that instead of short red or black hair, he had long, white hair. His solid yellow eyes did seem other worldly, yet still seemed to filled with kindness and excitement.

Unfortunately, that didn't do anything to put another certain demonically influenced teen at ease.

"So who are you supposed to be?" Raven asked tensely, her eyes narrowing just a bit.

"Kid Devil!" the boy stated quickly. "And I'm-"

"A demon," the bluette finished for him, again seeming on edge.

Despite the obviousness of it, Kid Devil seemed a bit embarrassed to have that information blurted out so bluntly.

"Well...yeah. But I'm still a good guy! I mean I was Blue Devil's sidekick for awhile!" he defended himself.

"So what happened with that did you get kicked out like BB or decide to just leave like Robin?" Cyborg asked, pointing to both of his respective friends.

"Hey!" the both shouted in protest.

Again the red skinned teen seemed ashamed. "We...just kinda...parted ways is all. I was gonna try to go it alone but if you guys would let me I'd be honored to joint the Teen Titans."

"How do we know we can trust you?" Raven asked almost snidely.

"Raven, are you perhaps not feeling well? You are acting even grouchier than usual," Starfire noted.

"I'm fine it's just..." she paused and looked over to where Kid Devil stood then back to her expectant friends. "Being around demons makes me a bit...edgy."

"Oh. Well...I could just go if you want me to," Kid Devil offered, dejectedly.

"No! No it's fine," Raven quick spoke up, writing his name down on her clipboard page. "Just don't expect me to be all warm and fuzzy around you."

"I don't think _any_ of us expect that from you," Beast Boy joked.

Raven leaned over to glared daggers at him, which caused the green shapeshifter to try to whistle nonchalantly as he leaned back to hide behind Cyborg's bulky frame. The grey skinned girl continued to glare at where he was seating for a few more seconds before she returned her attention to Kid Devil.

"You can go ahead and wait over there," she instructed, pointing to the waiting area.

"Hot damn!" Kid Devil exclaimed before he ran over to join the other four.

"Don't think _that's_ gonna go over to well with the parent groups," Cyborg remarked.

"We'll talk to him about it later," Robin noted then looked over at the line again. "Who's next?"

In response, a boy in an olive drab costume rigidly stepped forward and gave a crisp salute.

"Sir, that would be me, sir!" he barked.

"And you are...?" Robin prompted.

"Sir, Codename: Omega, sir!"

The assembled Titans looked around at each other, not quite sure what to make of this "Omega". His stance and way of speaking clearly revealed a military background which was further reflected in his costume. It was a mix of superhero and military aesthetics. In addition to the olive green color there was brown gloves and combat boots as well as black belt that held many pouches and even a canteen. On the superhero side of things, it was tight as hero costumes tended to be and included a mask that covered most of his face but left his eyes, mouth and short cropped, blonde hair exposed. The most notable part of it all was the large silver shield on his left arm with the Greek Omega symbol on it. One that was also displayed fully on his chest. He continued to stand stalk still with his right hand raised to his forehead in a salute as if he were waiting for orders.

"Uh...you can relax if you want," Robin suggested.

Omega nodded then lowered his arm and relaxed his posture just slightly but still seemed to remain completely straight and rigid somehow.

"So what's your story?" Beast Boy asked casually.

"Sir, that is classified information, sir!" Omega responded sharply.

"Ooookaaaaay...so then what can you do?" he tried again.

"Sir, I have granted enhanced strength, agility, stamina, top fighting prowess, proficient in many forms of hand-to-hand combat and my shield is nearly indestructible, sir!" the tightly wound teen listed off, lifting up his shield a bit for emphasis.

"Anything else you want to tell us?" Cyborg asked tentatively.

"Sir, only that I wish to be part of the Teen Titans, sir!"

"All right then, just go ahead over there and we'll get you processed," he replied quickly.

Omega nodded again then marched over to the where the other five seemed to try to talk to him but he seemed as uptight as ever. The Titans themselves continued to stare at him for a few seconds before looking around each other again.

"Well _that_ guy seems like he's just gonna be a load of laughs," Beast Boy remarked.

"We can't all spend our time making lame, unfunny jokes like you," Raven retorted.

"She's got you there, BB," Cyborg smirked.

"Dude, come on! That's not even funny! That's just hurtful!" the changeling complained.

"I have always found some of Beast Boy's jokes funny," Starfire encouraged.

"Thanks, Star. Good to know I still have _some_ friends around here," Beast Boy growled, glaring at Cyborg and Raven.

"Oh come on, busting your chops is one of the more fun things to do around here," Cyborg returned.

"Can you guys do this later?" Robin requested. "We still have..." he looked out over the line again, "...quite a few more candidates to go through."

"I wonder who will be next?" Starfire mused.

"ME!" a boisterous voice shouted, surprising all of them.

If they weren't sure how to deal with Omega, then the Titan was completely unprepared for the next person who stepped up. The supposed "teen" who stepped forward was nearly seven feet tall and looked like he hit the gym everyday since he could walk. His muscles seemed outlandishly proportioned and they could swear his arms and legs were bigger than his head. A feat made even more impressive by the fact that he was wearing a tatter, black leather jacket. I was worn over what they suspected was a black muscle shirt with a blood covered skull on it. From what they could see around the multiple pouches he wore on them, his jeans were tattered as well so as to match the jacket. Or look "cool," they weren't entirely sure. Working against this "coolness" factor was the multicolored rasta hat which partly covered his long, dirty looking dreadlocks that fell past his shoulders and onto his chest. He seemed to compensate for the hat by wearing a pair of dark shades with holographic skulls on the lenses and a huge broadsword strapped to his back.

"Who-" Starfire started.

"Or what," Raven interrupted.

The redhead stared at her for a second but continued her question, "Who are you?"

"I am Blood Dread! The most hardcore, awesomest superhero you will _ever_ lay your eyes on!" the gigantic teen shouted. "Blood Dread knows no fear! Blood Dread knows no pain!"

"Apparently Blood Dread doesn't know how to speak in the first person," Cyborg whispered to Beast Boy, causing them both to snicker.

Blood Dread turned his head towards them, causing his dreadlocks to whip around him a bit.

"You DARE mock Blood Dread?" he shouted.

"No, no dude," Beast Boy said quickly through some final snickering. "It's just...I thought all those 'extreme' heroes stuff went out of style in the 90's."

"Blood Dread is more than happy to carry on the legacy of extreme and hardcore from those most awesome times! People will fear you with Blood Dread on your team!" he shouted then seemed to let out a loud snort.

"What was _that_?" Robin asked in confusion.

"It sounded like the mating cry of the Schlorborfa-norfa," Starfire noted.

"Thank was an awesome and manly 'skronk' which should be let out as any statement of extremeness!" Blood Dread "explained".

"Right," Robin nodded, feeling completely lost and exhausted. "Well we appreciate your...enthusiasm but we're _not_ about scaring people on the Teen Titans. So if you _do_ make it through the try outs you'll have to tone it down..."

"A lot," Raven offered.

"Yes," the Boy Wonder nodded.

"Hardcore can not be cut down," Blood Dread growled as he somehow crossed his arms over his massive chest. "But Blood Dread will try."

"Good. You can join the others for the moment," the Titans' leader instructed.

The massive teen nodded then stopped over to the second waiting area while the Titans reluctantly wrote down his name.

"Man, I hope the rest of them aren't like..._that_," Beast Boy muttered to Cyborg, casting a sideways glance to Blood Dread.

"Noooo kidding," he nodded in agreement.

"There can't _possibly_ be anyone worse than him," Robin remarked.

"Famous last words," Raven muttered, resting her chin on her hand again.

"Perhaps it would be best not to jump to such rash conclusions yet," Starfire advised.

"You're right Star," Robin nodded with a smile. "Well the next candidate step forward, please?"

"Right here," a mechanized voice announced.

It belonged to a boy of medium height and build in high tech suit of black and yellow armor. The helmet was shaped like an insect's head with two black, compound eye pieces and a pair of black antenna attached to the forehead. In keeping with the bug theme, he had two translucent yellow wings fixed to his back with wires and circuits running through them to resemble the veins seen in real insect wings.

"So who are you supposed to be? The Wasp?" Beast Boy asked.

"Yellow Jacket," the boy quickly corrected. "Wasp was actually already taken."

"Really?"

"Apparently so."

"So where'd you get that sleek looking armor?" Cyborg asked, interrupting the two.

"Oh, well..." Yellow Jacket started, looking at his own armor a bit. "It's something I've been helping my parents working over the years. Originally it was designed to with the intent to help sway wasps and bees from stinging people but after a break in at the lab, I convinced them to turn it into a superhero costume."

"And your parents are okay with you doing this?" Robin asked frankly.

"Mostly," Yellow Jacket replied, running his hand over the top of his helmet nervously. "They still worry about me of course but they realize it's the right thing to do."

"Why didn't your father take up the costume?"

"Because we could only get enough material to make a suit for me. Surprisingly, there's not a lot of people wanting to fund bug research."

"Why _did_ you go with the bug motif, anyway?" Raven asked.

Yellow Jacket shrugged. "It seemed fitting. I mean we worked in the original project with these things," he pointed to the antenna on top of the helmet. "They allow me to call and direct yellow jackets and other wasps in the area. My wings," he paused to allow the wings on his back move into an upward position then levitated off the ground, "allow me to hover and fly."

"That's pretty impressive work," Cyborg encouraged.

"Thanks," he replied as he landed. "Oh! And I have these," he held up his gauntlets to show off small mussels built into them just over his hands. "They're basically my stringers and shoot out small darts that can paralyze whoever they hit. Totally non lethal though, I promise."

"Good," Robin spoke with a slight edge in his voice. "Is there anything else you want to tell us?"

"Hmmm..." Yellow Jacket hummed as he rubbed the chin of his helmet. "No, that's about of the important information. I could tell you my favorite movies or musicians if you want."

"No, no that's fine," the Boy Wonder waved off then wrote the boy's name down on his clipboard. "Just wait over there with the others until we're ready for you."

"All right. Thank you," the armored boy nodded before he joined the other interviewees.

"Oh, you are _most_ welcome!" Starfire said brightly as she gave him a small wave.

Raven couldn't help but roll her eyes at her friend's ever present cheerfulness then pointed to the girl standing just behind the line in front of the table.

"All right, you can come up here now," she droned out.

The blonde girl nodded and gently floated over to the line. Like Raven herself, she was dressed mostly in blue but her clothes were sky blue in color and _much_ more revealing. She wore a sleeveless, button down shirt that was tied up just below her breasts to show off her taunt stomach. A pleated miniskirt stopped just below her hips and left just a bit of exposed skin of her thighs before the rest of her legs were covered up by white stalkings. Her "costume" was topped off by a pair of black tennis shoes and overall it gave her a very "cute" appearance. One helped greatly by the fact that she had her sunny blonde hair tied into small pigtails. It all also made Raven feel a bit sick to her stomach.

"And you are...?" she prodded, trying to force down the sarcasm in her voice.

"Gust!" the girl replied in an overly perky tone. "I can control the wind."

To emphasis her point she held out her right hand and a small gust of wind blew over the assembled Titans, blowing through their hair and ruffling their papers a bit.

"As impressive as _that_ is, you _can_ make stronger winds, right?" Raven asked.

"Oh yeah, of course! When I really put my mind to it I can created hurricane force winds. You know, the kind that can lift cars and blow roofs off buildings. Takes a lot out of me but I can do it if I need to. Oh, and I can also fly."

Just like Yellow Jacket, Gust floated into the air to demonstrate her ability. This of course caused her miniskirt to flow around in a rather enticing manner. This, of course, caused Beast Boy and Cyborg to lean forward a bit in their chairs and stare intently at the blonde girl. Raven rolled her eyes again and sighed before she wrapped the legs of their chairs in her dark telekinetic aura gave them a hard yank. The chairs flew out from beneath the two and forced them chin first down onto the table rather roughly.

"Owww!" the both cried out in pain.

"Bid mah dongue!" Beast Boy whined.

"That's what you get for letting it hang out of your mouth," Raven retorted.

"Are you guys okay?" Gust asked as she landed and took a step closer to the table.

"I'm sure they're fine," the gothic girl remarked with a wave of her hand. "You can wait over there with the others now."

"Oh. If you're sure," the blonde said in confusion.

"_Very_ sure," Raven nodded.

Gust gave one last look at the injured Cyborg and Beast Boy before she floated over to the second waiting area where she started up a conversation with a few of the other hopefuls. Mostly those who showed they could fly and Raven would swear she heard something being discussed about flying and miniskirts which made her wonder just _why_ so many flying girls chose to wear them. Her musing was interrupted as the flying girl in a miniskirt next to her spoke up.

"The next candidate may step forward now," Starfire called out.

Another girl stepped up but this one was much more fully dressed than Gust. In fact she was mostly covered up save for a white buttoned down shirt which was unbuttoned enough to show off a bit of her ample cleavage. Surprisingly though that wasn't what caught everyone's attention at first. No, what got their attention was that clothes that covered the majority of her body were all pirate clothes. There was no way around it, she was dressed as a pirate.

Over the white shirt she wore a long brown coat with tails that hung down just past her upper thighs. She had light grey, slightly baggy pants that ended in almost knee high buccaneer boots. A brown leather belt hung around her waist with a holster for what appeared to a flint rock pistol on the right left sided and sheath for a long cutlass on the right side. A black tri corner hat sat on top of her head with her chestnut brown, slight curled hair flowing down from it and past her shoulders. The whole outfit made her look like she just stepped off the set of a summer blockbuster rather than trying out for a superhero team.

"Just what we need, another girl in cheap Halloween costume," Raven sighed.

"Hey, I'll have you know I sewed together _every_ bit of this costume!" the girl snapped back. "Well...except for the hat, that was something my family's had for awhile now."

"That's cool," Beast Boy nodded. "So what do you call herself?"

"Pirate Girl!" she declared, placing her hands on her chest and thrusting out her impressive chest a bit.

The Titans seemed less than thrilled with the declaration, however.

" 'Pirate Girl'?" Robin repeated as if he hadn't heard her right.

The girl's attitude was quickly deflated by the comment and she slouched forward a bit in defeat.

"Okay, fine, I couldn't come up with a better name. Sue me," she remarked with a roll of her eyes.

"It is a perfectly lovely name," Starfire encouraged. "Now please, explain to us your powers."

"Well..." Pirate Girls started off nervously. "I don't really have any powers but I AM pretty good fighter and I've taken some fencing lessons so I'll be able to use _this_ quite well," she explained as she pulled out her cutlass.

"Well, that could help but try not to hurt anyone too much with that," Robin warned.

"Oh, trust me I know how to handle it so I wouldn't do any serious harm to anyone," she informed him as she sheathed the weapon again.

"Anything else?" Cyborg asked.

"I have a magic gun," she said, pulling out the flint rock pistol.

Raven blinked in surprise. "Where'd you purchase that?"

"Okay now _that_ is kind of a long and surprisingly depressing story. See there was this young girl-" Pirate Girl started.

"Dude! I thought you didn't have to explain magic?" Beast Boy shouted as he held his head.

"That's only for people who don't know how to use it," Raven retorted.

"It gives me a headache," the green shapeshifter moaned as he laid his head on the table.

"Well, then maybe I'll explain it later," Pirate Girl offered as she put the pistol away.

"Yeah, like when I'm not here," Beast Boy joked.

"Of course, that's if you make it past the next stage," Robin noted. "Though I'm sure some of us would still be willing to listen to it even if you didn't."

He cast a knowing glance as Raven who just nodded slightly.

"I'll make a note of it," Pirate Girl nodded. "So let me guess, go over there and wait with the others?"

Robin couldn't help but grin a bit at the comment.

"That's right," he remarked.

"All right then, see you at...whatever we're doing next," she agreed before she walked off.

Raven wrote down the girl's rather blunt codename then looked up at the list of names they already had then back up at the line still in front of them.

"So how many more do we have left to go through?" she asked.

Cyborg bounced his finger up as he counted the heads of those in line.

"Looks like ten," he replied. "That's not that bad."

"That's what you said when we started this whole thing," Raven sighed as she rested her head on her hand and tapped the table with the index finger of her other hand. "This is going to be a looooong day."

**To Be Continued...**

**Author's Notes: **Well after _two months_ I finally got something done! I actually started something back in September for my Kim Possible fics involving my OC Jen Credible with an idea I was _really_ excited about for a long time but then just as I was about to finish the first page my muse decided to say, "Nope! On second thought I'm not going to help you with that. Hah!" Course that's only going to make sene to my readers who followed me here from the KP section so everyone else just kind of ignore those last few sentences.

As for this story in particular, I've had it in my mind for at least the past year and just never found the time to write it since I was working on so much else. Well, apparently in the fight with my muse to work on _something_ she threw this back in my face. Course the problem was is it was just _full_ of character descriptions which always seem to give me a hard time. Thus why it took me about a month just to write this chapter. I realize it's not the most exciting chapter and it's kind of dry but still I hope some these characters and the dialogue bits with the Titans help make it somewhat enjoyable.

Speaking of the Titans, it's been about...six or seven _years_ since I last wrote for them and I'm honestly surprised at myself at being able to get right back into their characters and hear their voices again. At least I _think_ I'm writing them in character, if anyone sees something amiss please fell free to tell me.

So that's it for the first half of the introductions, stay tuned for the next batch. I really wanted to do them all in one chapter but then I realized that it would probably be a 40 page chapter full of just descriptions and I doubt you guys would want to read that. Just bare with me and once we get through the next chapter we'll see just what all these people can do and which ones will actually make it into the Teen Titans.

Anyone want to start taking bets as to who's going to make it from this group?

Oh yeah and does anyone get the joke about the magic gun?


	2. Introductions Part 2

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans, they are owned by DC comics, Cartoon Network and WB entertainment. I do, however, own the OCs contained within and use of them without my permission is strictly prohibited. You got that? _

**Recruitment Drive**

**Chapter 2: Introductions Part 2**

The other Titans all turned their attention towards Raven after her latest sarcastic remark. Being empathic she not only felt their eyes on her but also their rather annoyed attitudes which in turn made her slightly irritated.

"What?" she snapped, glaring at them.

"Raven, you know we appreciate your...unique input," Robin started delicately. "It's just that...well..."

"Could you _try_ to not be so sarcastic and mean all the time?" Beast Boy blurted out, flailing his arms widely.

"That," the Boy Wondered agreed, pointing his thumb towards the changeling.

Raven glared menacing at the two and sparks of dark energy flashed in the corners of her eyes as she tried to keep her anger in check. Robin and Beats Boy exchanged nervously looks before they sunk back in their chairs a bit. Unfortunately, they could still feel Raven's heated glare on them.

"Well, while we're at it why don't _you_," she jabbed a finger a Robin, "try to stop being so obsessive about fighting crime and _you_," she pointed at Beast Boy, "stop making so many stupid jokes!"

"Okay, okay let's all settle down now," Cyborg spoke up with a calming wave of his hands.

"Yes, please, let us not fight. We are all friends here," Starfire added.

Robin and Beast Boy looked at each other for a moment before they nodded and turned their attention back to Raven.

"We're sorry about that Raven," Robin apologized gently.

"Yeah we know you can't help being all dark and sarcastic," Beast Boy apologized in his own unique way.

"We're just trying to make a good impression on the candidates. We _do_ have quite a reputation to live up to."

Raven sighed before she leaned back into her own chair.

"Well...maybe I _have_ been a bit _too_ harsh on some of these people," she begrudgingly admitted.

"See? Problem solved!" Cyborg cheered. "Now let's get this show back on track by having the next guy step forward!"

His excitement wavered just a bit when the boy who stepped up was dressed from head to tow in pitch black clothes. Shirt, pants, gloves, boots all black. He wore a hooded cloak like Raven's that was black as well. Also like Raven's cloak, when the hood was up it obscured his face. But _unlike_ hers, it obscured his whole face. There wasn't even a hint of chin outline anywhere under the hood, just a featureless mass of darkness. It created an unsettling look that put most of the Titans on edge. All except Raven of course.

"Who are you?" she asked almost eagerly.

"I am Phantom," answered in a low, rumbling voice.

"And what can you do?" Cyborg asked.

"I can move in and out of the shadows," he stated.

Beast Boy scratched his head as he tried to understand that statement.

"Dude, what does _that_ mean?" he blurted out.

"It means I can travel anywhere I want by moving through the Shadow Realm. Wherever there's a shadow I can either appear or disappear through it."

"You can transverse the Shadow Realm?"Raven asked with an arched eyebrow. "That's impressive. Not many people can do that."

"Not many people can stand the darkness. But I've always found myself surrounded by it," Phantom answered cryptically.

Despite herself, a smile tugged at the edges of Raven's mouth. "I think I'm going to like you."

"_Course_ you are," Beast Boy snorted. "I bet you two are going to have hours of fun writing depressing poetry together."

"I'm sure it couldn't be any worse than any of the poems you've written," Raven shot back.

"I don't write poems," the changeling remarked in confusion.

"Exactly," she replied with a smirk.

"Is there anything else you want to tell us, Phantom?" Robin asked quickly.

"No. I think that's all you need to know for now," Phantom said solemnly.

"Then just wait over there and we'll get back to you."

Phantom nodded and in a quick demonstration of his power, he stepped forward and disappeared into the shadow of the table. The Titans looked at each other in surprise for a second before they looked over where the other ten hopefuls where standing and watched as Phantom slowly rose up from Blood Dread's impressive shadow. After a brief altercation with the overly muscular boy, Phantom calmly walked over to one of the shaded parts of the waiting area and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Looks like the last half of the candidates are going to be just as...interesting as the first half," Robin whispered to Cyborg.

"No kidding man. What else can happen?" he asked back.

The answer to that question came in the form of a tall robot that clanked its way towards the table. Although it had a humanoid shape, it seemed to be a hodgepodge of various pieces of junk. Loose wires hung all throughout his body and the main piece of his chest plate seemed to be made from a car door. While his left hand had scraps of metal formed into a three fingered hand, his right "hand" looked like the claw from an arcade machine. His left eye was the lens of large flashlight with made it seem exaggerated next to the bare lightbulb that made up his right one. Despite his pieced together appearance he seemed rather sturdy and the fact that he wasn't attacking them was quite comforting.

"Dude! What _are_ you?" Beast Boy shouted before anyone else could speak up.

"Well the human friends I have, have dubbed me 'Tin Man'," the robot explained in a highly synthesized voice. "But my core is an artificial intelligence from a planet far from here."

"How did you make your way to Earth?" Starfire asked eagerly.

"My parental units and I were escaping soldiers of a nefarious virus that was slowly corrupting the A.I.'s rest of our planet's inhabitants. While passing through your solar system, our ship was finally destroyed, my parental units and body along with it. My core survived and landed in what you humans call a 'junk yard'. It took me years to finally format my consciousness and pull together this rather...crude body."

"I'm sorry. It's never easy to lose your parents," Robin said gently.

"No, it is not," Tin Man agreed, lowering his head. After a moment he raised it again and seemed cheery again. "But in their absence I have made several new friends who have helped me adapted to Earth's strange ways."

"Oh yes it is _quite_ glorious to have friends to help you understand new cultures!" Starfire cheered happily, grabbing both Robin and Raven next to her and pulling the into tight hugs.

"Starfire...it's...a bit...too tight," Robin gasped.

"What...have I...told you...about hugging...me," Raven grumbled through the crushing hug.

The redhead quickly let them go and let out a nervous laugh as she helped straighten out their capes. She then placed her hands on the desk in front of her and sat there with a slightly sheepishly look.

"I simply meant it is very good to have such close and caring friends," she repeated much more calmly.

"Oh yes, friends are indeed important," Tin Man agreed. "In fact it was my friends who convinced me to try out for the Teen Titans."

"Well then, hopefully you'll be able to make them proud by making it onto the team," Robin encouraged as he wrote down the robot's name on his pad.

"It is what I am sincerely hoping for sir," the junkyard robot said with a small nod before he walked over to the second waiting area.

"I believe I'm next, right?" a chipper voice asked.

The voice belonged to a slender green girl with shoulder length red hair. She was dressed in a white, V neck T-shirt with red stripes forming an "X" over her chest and bleeding down into a red belt around her waist with a yellow gem on the buckle. The belt helped to hold up the light blue, pleated miniskirt that hung loosely around her hips. A pair of matching buccaneer style boots covered her feet and shins while a waist length, collared cape gently swayed behind her in the soft breeze. Although her eyes were mostly black with tiny white pupils, they shined brightly with barely contained enthusiasm and her lips were curled back into a wide smile that challenged any of Starfire's excited smiles. Which of course made the Tamaranian princess take instant note of the green girl.

"Oh please, introduce yourself new friend," Starfire requested excitedly.

"Well on Earth I'm known as Miss Martian. Niece to the Martian Manhunter," the girl responded cheerfully.

"A relative to one of the big guys?" Beast Boy asked in surprise. "That's awesome!"

"I didn't know Martian Manhunter had any family yet," Robin mused, stroking his chin a bit. "I thought all of his people were wiped out?"

"So did he, but I was kept in suspended animation underneath the surface of Mars," Miss Martian explained. "We were both overjoyed to see each other and he brought me back to Earth to show me his new home. I've been here about half of an Earth year and I must say this planet simply amazing!"

"It is indeed quite glorious!" Starfire exclaimed. "Since you are still new to this planet I will be more than happy to show you around! Have you been to the mall of shopping yet?"

"Oh I have and it's great!" the green girl squealed. "We never had anything like it on Mars and seeing all the different kind of Earth fashions and people in one place is quite exciting and informative."

"It is even _more_ exciting when you try on those different fashions in the clothing stores. Then this is this thing they call made-up that is fun to do as well!"

"Make up, Star," Robin corrected.

"Yes that," the redhead nodded. "That is not to mention they various hair products that exist and that can be used. They are _so_ much fun!"

"It sounds like it! Even if I don't end up as part of your team I hope we'll get the time to do the...oh what do they call it? 'Hanging out'?"

"That is indeed it and we _will_ do so!"

Raven looked back and fourth between the two very similar and very excitable aliens then let out a loud, exhausted groan. While the two continued to go on about the various fun things about Earth and what they could do together, she leaned forward to give Robin a desperate look.

"Please don't do this to me," she mouthed silently.

"If she makes it, there's nothing I can do," Robin mouthed back.

Raven just sighed again then laid her head on the table in defeat. Despite himself, Robin couldn't help but chuckle a bit at her actions but quickly regained his composure and loudly cleared his throat to gain the two girls' attention.

"Well, it sounds like you two will get along great even if you don't make it onto the team Miss Martian. But I'm sure Starfire will be rooting for you to make it. Now if you'll just wait with the others we'll try to get this over with as quickly as possible," he explained.

"Oh of course," Miss Martian smiled. "I'll be sure to keep in touch Starfire."

"That will be lovely," Starfire beamed.

The Martian girl's smile widened before they floated over to where the other twelve hopefuls were waiting. While the rest of the Titans were amused by the whole thing, Raven tried to suppress the thoughts of what it'd be like to have _two_ Starfires around. Unfortunately, it didn't work very well and she found herself shuddering quite a bit the prospect.

"Well that was fun," Cyborg remarked, completely ignoring Raven's slight freak out. "Now let's see who's-GAH!"

His surprised expression was shared by the rest of the team as they next candidate stepped forward. Out of all the different heroes they had seen today, this one caught them the must off guard but of how...familiar she appeared. Perhaps familiar was too broad a term, the girl before them had an outfit almost identical to Robin's. Most notable were the red tunic she word as well as the green sleeves and gloves. She even had a yellow emblem over her left breast like Robin's "R" though hers was of a bird that looked like a sparrow. The cape and the bottom half of her costume were where the differences came in. While her cape was similar Robin's it was a solid yellow instead of yellow and black and had a collar like Miss Martian's cape. Instead of green pants like Robin, she had on green, scaled briefs and matching shoes which could only be described as pixie shoes. While a strange combination, it did have the added benefit of showing off her shapely legs.

Still, even that was of little comfort given the extremely odd situation before the Titans.

"Dude! It's a female Robin!" Beast Boy exclaimed in confusion.

"That's Sparrow, thank you very much," the girl retorted, playing a hand on her hips.

"She even has a bird's name!" the green boy remarked then looked over at Robin. "You didn't tell us you had a sister!"

"That's because I _don't_," Robin said as he narrowed his eyes a bit. "Who are you?"

"I just said, I'm Sparrow," she repeated in slight annoyance. "And trust me I'm _just_ as surprised as you are. I thought this was a totally original look."

"How did you come up with it?"

She shrugged. "Once I developed my powers I figured I'd go the hero route and I always liked the name 'Sparrow' so I just kinda threw this outfit together."

"Wait, did you say you have powers?" Cyborg asked.

"Oh yeah! Here check this out."

With that, Sparrow lowered the green tinted shades she wore on her forehead to cover her eyes then raised her hands above her head. A second later, tiny multicolored plasma balls shot out from her fingertips and ignited in the air like fireworks. Both Starfire and Beast Boy let out impressed "Oooohs" at the display while the others just watched in silent wonder. Once she was sure they were thoroughly impressed, Sparrow stopped her fireworks then slid the shades back onto her forehead and smirked.

"So what do you think?" she asked.

"Well that's definitely something Robin can't do," Cyborg joked, giving his friend a slight nudge on his shoulder.

"Fine I'll admit it's impressive," Robin said begrudgingly. "But I take it you have some fighting skills as well."

"Oh yeah I know a mix of martial arts, some acrobatics, escapology, oh and I'm a pretty skilled detective if I do say so myself," Sparrow listed off.

"_Totally_ a female Robin!" Beast Boy said again.

"Thankfully though, Robin didn't go for the fish scale briefs," Cyborg smirked.

"Hey!" Robin protested.

"Oh come on, you gotta admit you don't really have the legs to pull that look off."

The Boy Wonder looked like he was about to protest that remark but then stopped and tilted his head in agreement. He then shook it wildly to focus his attention back to the matter at hand.

"All right Sparrow, we'll mark you down so you just have to wait with the others til we're ready for you," he said.

"Fair enough. See ya in a bit boys," Sparrow replied before she walked off.

As she did so, Cyborg and Beast Boy's heads slowly followed her and they paid special attention to when the breeze blew her cape away from her backside. Again Raven sighed from her end of the desk before she pulled their chairs out from under them and caused them to slam their chins on the desktop. Her efforts were in vein as far as Beast Boy was concerned, however, as soon as the next candidate stepped forward. "Cat girl" was the best word to describe her but more a more accurate term would be "tiger girl". She was covered with soft reddish orange fur and strips all over her body and a long tail swinging gently behind her. Despite those cat like traits, however, her face was mostly human though her smirk did reveal a small set of fangs to match her green, cat like eyes.

Despite her feline appearance, her most striking feature was her choice of outfits. It was a simple ensemble consisting of only a black sports bra and matching bikini bottoms. The fact that she wore clothes at all suggested that she was still a little more human than animal and the skimpy outfit certainly seemed to attract Beast Boy's attention.

"W-who are you?" he stammered out.

"Well lately I've been going by Tigress," she replied as she ran a hand through her long, dark red hair. "For obvious reasons."

"What do you mean lately?" Robin asked.

"Well obviously I wasn't _always_ like this," Tigress remarked, gesturing to herself.

"What happened?"

"You ever heard of a woman called DNAmy?"

"Isn't she one of the villains Kim Possible usually handles?" Raven spoke up.

The other Titans blinked and turned their heads towards the usually dour girl. Again she felt their eyes on her and couldn't help but feel a bit irritated.

"What?" she snapped again.

"How do you know about her?" Beast Boy asked suspiciously.

Raven's eyes widened and she quickly turned her head away in hopes of hiding the slight blush forming on her grey cheeks.

"I just like to be up to date on all the other young heroes out there," she said lamely.

"Since when?" he pressed.

"_Anyway_," Tigress spoke up to draw their attention again. "I was street kid who got caught by DNAmy and tossed into her Gene Zipper machine and crossed with a tiger. Before it went too far, however, Kim Possible came along and broke out me out. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do to turn me back so I figured I could either wallow in self pity or do the whole hero thing. Went for the latter cause that way I can at least help other kids from having something like this happen to them."

"That's very noble," Robin nodded in approval. "I hope you'll be able to make it onto the team."

"Me too. I'd be nice to have some help since this whole hero thing is tougher than I thought it would be," Tigress remarked with a shake of her head. She then focused her attention on Beast Boy. "Plus it'd be nice to fight along someone like you there, cutey."

She smirked and winked at him before she walked over to the secondary waiting area, swaying her hips a bit as she did so. Beast Boy stared dumbfoundedly as her with his jaw hanging open. Once he regained his senses a few seconds later his head whipped towards Robin to whom he gave a pleading look.

"Dude _please_! You _gotta_ do this for me!" he begged, holding his hands out in front of him and making his eyes as big as saucers.

"We can't play favorites. If she makes it on the team she makes it on the team. If not I'm sure you can still get a hold of her later," he retorted.

"Awww man!" Beast Boy pouted and laid his head helplessly on the table.

"Anyway, who's next?" Robin asked.

"That'd be us!" another female voice called out.

Much like with Siren and Ultragirl, two girls stepped forward this time. One was dressed in a purple body suit with a matching hooded cape. The purple was broken up by black gloves, boots and a mask that covered her head. She wore a black utility belt around her waist and a secondary grey pack around her left thigh.

The girl next to her was dressed all in black with only a dash of yellow added by a bat symbol outline on her chest and a utility belt with large pouches around her waist. Like the girl next to her, her masked covered her whole head though it was clear the patch over her mouth was stitched onto the rest of the cowl. It also sported long, bat like eyes as one would expect from someone with a Bat symbol on their chest. While her cape was as long as her friend's, hers was rather torn and tattered at the ends revealing that she was quite rough on it.

"Hiya Robin!" the girl in purple greeted cheerfully with an excited wave.

"Hey," the other one said much more softly.

"Robin, who are these girls and why do they address you in a such a friendly way?" Starfire asked, narrowing her slightly glowing eyes at Robin.

"Because they _are_ my friends Star," he said rather quickly. "From back in Gotham City. That's Spoiler," he pointed to the girl in purple and moved his finger to the other one, "and that's obviously Batgirl."

"That's us!" Spoiler remarked.

"Pleasure to meet you all," Batgirl said with a slight nod.

"I thought you didn't talk?" Cyborg remarked.

"I've learned to talk but I simply chose to let someone _else_ to the talking for me," she clarified, tilting her head towards Spoiler.

"I'd be offended if that weren't so true," Spoiler scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Spoiler, why are you guys here?" Robin asked in slight irritation.

"Isn't it obvious? We're here to try to join the Teen Titans!"

"I thought you were trying to get out of the hero business?"

Spoiler's eyes widened behind her mask and she was thankful that it hid her blush. Though she still gave herself away by scratching her cheek nervously.

"Well...you see...about that..." she stammered.

"She seems to be addicted to being a hero," Batgirl said flatly.

"I wouldn't say I'm 'addicted'!" Spoiler snapped. "I just like helping people is all."

"I certainly hope you've improved your skills since last time me met," Robin said rather seriously.

"We've been working on that," Batgirl answered for her.

"How's it going?"

"As well as can be expected."

"Hey!" Spoiler shouted. "Come on guys, this is starting to get a little insulting. I mean I'm right here! Am I invisible or something?"

"I thought you _could_ turn invisible?" Cyborg commented.

"No. Where'd you hear that?"

"Just...around. Huh. Guess I heard wrong."

"Well anyway we'll get this all worked out _if_ you make it onto the team," Robin spoke, looking more towards Spoiler on the "if" than Batgirl.

"Geez make a few tiny mistakes and _everyone_ turns against you," Spoiler muttered as she and Batgirl walked off.

"'Tiny' mistakes?" Batgirl questioned, arching an eyebrow behind her mask.

"Oh don't _you_ start now."

Robin shook his head a bit as the two walked away then noticed that Starfire was still staring at him rather intently.

"Why did you not tell us you knew those girls?" she pressed.

"Yeah, man. I mean, I figured the Batgirl thing, but I never knew you knew Spoiler," Cyborg remarked.

"It's because it wasn't really important. They're my friends but they're also part of the life I tried to leave behind back in Gotham," Robin explained hastily. "Can we just get on with this?"

The other two looked rather unconvinced, but still nodded slowly before jotting the two names down on their clipboards.

"I'm almost afraid to ask who's next," Raven spoke up.

In response to her question, a grey mist gently wafted up to the line in front of the desk and slowly took the shape of a blonde haired girl with a long coat over covering the top half of her body and the rest covered by a light grey body suit with a darker grey strip running down right half of her abdomen and leg. Even while in her human form, small trails of smoke came off her shoulders and the tail of her coat, given her a very ethereal look.

"Um...I guess that would be me," she said timidly.

"And you are...?" Raven pressed.

"Well...I don't really know but I've been going by Secret lately," she explained.

"So then, 'Secret', what can you tell us about yourself?" Robin asked.

"Well I've been on the run from the DEO for awhile but I'm pretty sure I lost their trail. As far as powers go I can fly, teleport, shape-shift and become ethereal. I don't really know what to say beyond that. I'm a little shy," she revealed as she nudged the tips of her index fingers together.

"That's fine, if you don't want to say anymore you can just wait by the others," the Boy Wonder offered.

Secret beamed brightly and nodded happily before she floated over to the ever growing group. She stayed back from the main huddle and ended up standing next to Phantom, who merely acknowledged her with a glance before he lowered his head again in what looked to be a meditative act.

"We're almost done with this, right?" Raven asked in an exhausted tone.

Robin looked out at the only two girls remaining in what has once been a fairly long line.

"I'd say so," he smirked. "If you two want to come up together that's fine."

The girls looked at each other then shrugged and stepped forward. It somehow seemed appropriate to round out with unusual group of teen heroes with two girls who were dressed in completely opposite colors. The girl on the left was dressed with mostly white with a few gold trims on the sleeves of her blouse and the hem of her skirt. They were matched by the gold sash around her waist and large lighting bolt over her chest. She also wore a matching white and gold cape over her left shoulder the fluttered along with her light brown hair.

In fitting with their opposite colors, the other girl's costume was also much more form fitting than her companion's. It was a black, sleeveless body suit with a large, white skull on the front with her breasts fitting right into it's eye sockets. She also wore black gloves with hand bones painted on the back of them and a pair of silver shin guards over her boots which also had bones painted on them. Her long, black hair hung rather flatly from her head and complimented her pale skin and solid white eyes.

"So who are you guys?" Cyborg asked curiously.

"I'm Mary Marvel," the girl in white proclaimed. "Sister to Captain Marvel."

"Younger sister I take it," Robin commented.

Mary paused for a moment. "Um...something like that, yeah. As such I have similar powers to him. You know, flight, super speed, super strength, invulnerability all that good stuff."

"So like Superman then?" Beast Boy asked.

The brunette sigh and shook her head in annoyance.

"Yes, kinda like the Superman family," she remarked. "I know there are a lot of similarities between our two groups, but we're not all the same."

"I'm sure that's not what Beast Boy meant at all," Robin corrected his teammate. "It was just the easiest comparison."

"I know, I know. It's just that I get it all the time. Kinda like that Ultragirl over there," she pointed to the tall blonde in the other group. "It _can_ get tiring after awhile."

"I'm sure it can. We'll make sure not to make the same mistake twice. _Right_ Beast Boy," Robin glared at the shape shifter.

"Oh. Right. Totally. Sorry about that," he apologized quickly.

"It's okay. I know it was an honest mistake," Mary said.

"And who else we do we have here?" Cyborg asked, turning to the other girl.

"Dead Girl!" she said much more cheerfully than any of them would have anticipated.

"'Dead Girl'?" Raven muttered with a quirked eyebrow.

"Well...yeah. It's the best name I could come up with. And it's fitting given my situation."

"What _is_ your situation?" Robin asked.

"Well, I'm dead."

The Titan's eyes all bugged out at the rather causal revelation of such an important fact. Even Mary took a step back in surprise as she inspected the girl even closer. Dead Girl herself looked rather embarrassed at all the attention she was getting from the fact and tried to think of something to say or do that might break the tension.

"Um...sorry I guess that _did_ come out a bit wrong," she mumbled.

Thankfully that comment seemed to snap the Titans out of their daze and they refocused their attention on the strange girl.

"When...you say you're dead..." Robin started carefully.

"It means by all medical definitions I'm totally, completely not alive," she clarified.

"So that means..." Beast Boy mumbled, rubbing his chin. He suddenly jumped back in horror as his mind made the only connection it could. "You're a zombie! She's a zombie! She's going to eat our brains!"

"In that case, I think you're safe," Raven retorted.

Beast Boy stopped in his flailing about to look over at the snarky goth girl.

"_So_ not cool," he muttered as he laid his chin on his hand.

"I can assure you I'm not going to eat anyone's brains," Dead Girl explained quickly.

"Then how _did_ you come back?" Robin asked.

"I'm...not really sure," she confessed. "One day I just sort of...woke up in a drainage ditch like this with no memory of who I am. I walked around for months trying to figure myself out and no luck. I'm kinda hoping that you guys will be able to help me figure it all out. Of course, I'll be more than will to fight the baddies with you too while you do that. The good thing about already being dead is that no one can kill me again. Also all my wounds heal up instantly and I can even reattached severed limbs. All with no pain at all!" Her cheerful expression fell a bit after her statement. "Still not sure how that works either to be honest."

"Well even if you don't make it onto the team we'll do our best to try to solve this mystery for you," Robin said in determination.

"Looks like our boy's got something new to obsess over," Cyborg whispered to Beast Boy.

"What was that?" Robin glared at them.

"I said, with these two signed in we can start working out the next part of the try outs," he said quickly.

"That's true," the Boy Wonder nodded then turned to Mary Marvel and Dead Girl. "Girls would you excuse us for a minute?"

"Sure thing!" Mary cheered.

"Right," Dead Girl agreed.

As the last two candidates went to join the complete group now, the Titans huddled together behind their desk as they discussed their next move.

"Sooo there are a _lot_ of people here," Raven noted.

"No kidding. I mean I knew we'd draw a crowd but I didn't expect this," Cyborg spoke up.

"Really? I figured it'd be a lot more," Beast Boy remarked.

"Regardless of how many there are we have an opportunity to make many new friends this day," Starfire said happily.

"But right now we need to figure out which of these friends are actually going to be official Titans," Robin said in his usual commanding tone.

"Actually I was thinking about that," Cyborg stated as he held up his clip board. "Since we ended up having exactly twenty people I say we just mark off four groups of five on the list here and then test them as individual teams."

The Boy Wonder stroked his chin gently as he thought that idea over.

"Actually that sounds like a good idea Cyborg. If they teams don't make it as a whole we can always mix and match those ones that are left," he surmised.

"Exactly what I was thinking."

"Then let's go do this."

The others all nodded in agreement before they stood up and walked over to the collected mass of teen heroes eagerly awaiting them.

"May I have your attention please!" Robin announced, drawing their attention. "First of all I want to thank you all again for coming here and putting up with our...usual process. This is the first time we're doing something like this so we're not sure how to do it ourselves."

"But we've got an idea," Cyborg quickly added as he stepped forward. "We're going to separate you guys and girls into five member teams in the order you were signed in."

"Then what happens?" Siren asked curiously.

A dangerous glint came to the cybernetic teen's eyes that caused the group of heroes to feel slightly nervous about the answer to Siren's question.

"Next comes _my_ favorite part," Cyborg stated in twisted excitement. "The obstacle course!"

**To Be Continued...**

**Author's Notes: **Alright introductions are FINALLY out of the way! And it ended up being about 30 pages altogether. Not too bad I suppose but it does work better as two separate chapters. And now that the drudgery is out of the way we can get to the meat of the story with the obstacle course! Who will pass? Who will fail? Who will have a complete nervous breakdown before the thing even begins? Join us next time for the answers to those questions and many more! Start placing bets now folks!

Of course that might be awhile since I plan to dedicate December to working on a multi chapter The Batman fic that will fit the holiday season. Hope you'll all join me for that bit of festive cheer then we'll be back here to see how all these new recruits do.

By the way, _yes_ that _is_ the Cassandra Cain Batgirl with the Dick Grayson Robin. Continuity is my bitch! That's also why I have Miss Martian there as Martian Manhunter's niece which I admit I just took from the new Young Justice cartoon just to make things much more simple. Though she _is_ based on a Teen Titans Go design for her drawn by Todd Nauck on DA. I recommend checking it out. It's quite cute.

And for those of who you might actually remember it, Sparrow _is_ the same Sparrow from the Amalgam universe that was a cross between the Robin and Jubilee. I just couldn't resist putting her in there. It was fun. For those who don't remember or are too young to remember that...go to Wiki it'll explain all of it.

Alright that's all for now. Enjoy the fic, leave some reviews if you want and I'll see you all next time.


	3. Running The Gauntlet

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans, they are owned by DC comics, Cartoon Network and WB entertainment. I do, however, own the OCs contained within and use of them without my permission is strictly prohibited. You got that? _

**Recruitment Drive**

**Chapter 3: Running The Gambit**

Once the Titans had all the candidates signed in and organized, they led the eclectic group of teenagers to the large, rocky area behind the Tower where a massive, trap laden obstacle course lay before them. Cyborg didn't even try to hide his prideful smile as they all gapped at it. Taking that as his initiative, he stepped forward in between the course and the group so he could address them.

"All right I think you recruits are gonna _love_ this next part," he announced with a mischievous smirk. "All you gotta do is get from here," he pointed to the ground next to him, "to there. And ring that bell," he finished, pointing to a bell that hung from a wooden arch on the other side of the course. "Oh, and watch out for surprises."

"What kind of 'surprises'?" Siren asked suspiciously.

"Oh I can't tell you that. Otherwise they wouldn't be surprises, now would they?" he continued to tease gleefully. "But I'll give you _one_ hint: get hit by any paint balls and you're out."

"So are we all supposed to run through this thing at once?" Yellow Jacket asked.

"Okay now _that_ I can tell you," Cyborg remarked. "Since I designed this course for Titan's training purposes, it works best when five people are involved. So we've grouped you all into sets of five based on the order you signed up in. And with that in mind..." he paused to raise his clipboard. "Could Liberty Girl, Siren, Ultragirl, Impulse and Kid Devil step forward please?"

The five named heroes all stepped towards the cybernetic Titan who directed them to stand behind the white line painted on the rocky ground in front of the course.

"All right when I say 'Go', you guys can go ahead and start. So then...on your marks..." he deliberately drew out, causing the five to take ready positions. "Get set..." he continued as the other tensed up some more.

He purposely waited an extra second before finally letting the last word pass his lips.

"GO!"

No sooner had the word gotten out that there was a sudden surge of wind that nearly knocked the others down. They barely had time to recover from that unexpected occurrence when they heard a loud, frantic ringing sound. All those present looked out over the obstacle course to see Impulse on the other side ringing the bell and waving his arms. Cyborg's jaw dropped as he stared dumbfounded at the scene. His mouth slowly closed back up into a grimace as he ground his teeth and growled a bit.

"I _hate _speedsters," he grumbled.

"So...what do the rest of us do now?" Liberty Girl asked, looking at the others around her.

Siren stared out where the young speedster stood on the other side of the course and narrowed her eyes in determination.

"We ring that bell," she said in a strangely authoritative tone. "GO!"

Without thinking twice, the remaining three heroes ran or fly forward right beyond the blue clad girl to face the challenges of the course. They didn't get very far, however, before four small canon turrets popped out of the ground on either side of them and began to fire red paint balls at them. While Ultragirl flew overhead, Siren dropped into a crouching position and tossed a few throwing stars as the turrets to short them out. Kid Devil let out a jet of fire breath to toast the balls coming towards him while Liberty Girl simply jumped and dodged them somewhat erratically. Despite her unorthodox style, the black haired girl was able to make it past the turrets without catching a single bit of paint on her lilith frame.

"You know, if she's really going to be doing all those flips and jumps she _really_ shouldn't have worn such a short skirt," Raven noted of Liberty Girl in her usual monotone voice.

"I dunno, I think she's doing pretty well," Beast Boy muttered in a far off tone.

"_You_ would," the bluette dead panned then smack the shapeshifter in the back of the head for good measure.

After passing through the gauntlet of turrets without a scratch, or a splatter of paint in this case, the four would be Titans came upon a large wooden wall with a single rope hanging down from it. Without even breaking her stride, Siren raised her arms into the air and Ultragirl instantly swooped down to pick her up and carry her over the wall. As they passed over the obstacle, Siren saw that the rope extended past the wall and over a large pool that was no doubt full of nasty surprises then end at another wall for the person to climb down.

"Water trap!" she cried out over her shoulder to Liberty Girl and Kid Devil.

"Aerial trap!" Ultragirl suddenly shouted.

Siren cocked an eyebrow under her mask then looked in front of her again to see about four small metal orbs flying towards them. Of course they where all outfitted with turrets in the front to no doubt shoot out more paint balls at them.

"Especially made for fliers. They really _did_ think of anything, didn't they?" she mused.

"Guess they kinda had to," Ultragirl noted. "So...Dive Bomb maneuver?"

"Yep."

Ultragirl nodded in agreement then dived down low so the orbs would have to follow them. Once they were closer to the ground, Ultragirl swung her arms to build up some momentum for Siren then tossed her friend into the air. Siren tucked herself into a ball so she could preform a few midair flips before she pulled her Escrima sticks out from the holsters then struck out at two of the orbs as she fell in between them. The metal balls sparked a bit from the impact then fell uselessly to the rocky ground below. Siren herself soon joined them but she landed in a much more graceful crouch.

Ultragirl, meanwhile, was still dealing with the two remaining orbs that were spitting out paint balls while following her. She had managed to avoid all of them so far with a set of impressive aerial acrobatics, but she knew she couldn't keep this pace up forever. After a few more moments of the cat and mouse game, she pulled a sudden loop-de-loop that allowed her to fly under one of the orbs and slam her fist into it. She used the speed she built up to fly over the second orb then extended her left leg and fell so she could plant the heel of her foot into the top of it.

Both of the ruined machines joined their brothers on the ground while Ultragirl swooped back down to race along side Siren towards the bell.

"Wow. Those two work _really_ well together," Beast Boy noted.

"Be better if they weren't working so well together breaking my stuff," Cyborg muttered. "Still, it's not much of a surprise given the rumors about them."

"What rumors?"

Cyborg looked like he was about to say something, but suddenly stopped and cast a worried glance over at Raven. He then leaned into whisper something into Beast Boy's ear that involved pointing to the two young heroines and then crossing the first two fingers on his right hand. It also caused Beast Boy's eyes to widen in surprise and amusement.

"DUDE! No way!" he exclaimed.

"Hey, it's just what I've heard," Cyborg shrugged then turned his attention back to the course.

As Siren and Ultragirl continued further down the course, Kid Devil and Liberty Girl were still dealing with the wooden wall. While he couldn't fly, Kid Devil was able to used his mystically enhanced body to jump onto the top of the wall then jump over the pool entirely and land safely, if a little bit unsurely, on the other wall. He quickly jumped off and followed the other two girls.

Liberty Girl let out a soft sigh as stared up at the large wall in front of her.

" 'Course they leave the normal girl behind," she muttered as she grabbed the end of the rope. "Always _hated_ this part of gym class."

She then went about pulling herself up the wall with a few irritated grunts and groans. She then placed a tentative hand on the rope going across the pool before she swung herself over it and began to move hand over hand across it. This was one of the few times she actually quite thankful for her rather petite frame. Even if it _had_ lead to a number of cruel jokes from her classmates.

_Well, this will show them,_ she thought determinately as she drew closer to the end.

With one final push she jumped over to the other wall, but only one of her hands actually caught it. The other candidates let out an audible gasp as it looked like she was about to fall into the water below. Liberty Girl struggled for a few seconds but was finally able to swing her other arms around to grab hold of the wall's edge. She groaned as she pulled herself up and over the obstacle to the cheer of the crowd.

"_Really_ hope they're cheering for me and not what they're seeing right now," she said under her breath. "Maybe I need to rethink the skirt."

She didn't have long to dwell on that thought though as she feel rather ungracefully to the ground. She let out an irritated, and slightly pained, moan as she rubbed her now sore backside but still picked herself up and continued on after the others. Her trek was brought to a stop, however, when the ground beneath her suddenly gave out and she started to fall into a deep hole. She was saved at the last second, however, but a warm, red hand that shot out to grab her wrist. He looked up to see the red, smiling face of Kid Devil looking back at her. She gave her own weak smile just before he pulled her out of the hole.

"Thanks," she said softly.

"Hey, what are fellow Titans for, huh?" he remarked.

"We're not Titans yet."

"Well then," he started as he stood up then offered her his hand, "let's go change that."

Liberty Girl blushed just a bit as she took his hand and let him guide her to her feet. They smiled at one another for a second before they started to run down the path again, this time on the look out for pitfalls in addition to who knew how many other traps. The answer to that question being, of course, Cyborg who had a positively devilish smirk on his face as he pressed a button on his right forearm. In response to the electronic command, a portion of the ground right in front of the bell began to quake as it rose skyward and turned into a small mountain the seemed to encompass the whole area.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Liberty Girl shouted in annoyance.

"Well Cyborg _did_ say to be on the look out for surprises," Kid Devil shrugged.

"Besides, they _have_ to make it difficult so they get the best of the best," Siren reasoned. "You think they just make everyone they meet a Titan?"

"Well actually..." Liberty Girl started.

"Look you guys can stand here and talk if you want but _I'm_ getting over this thing," Ultragirl said before she took to the air again.

She didn't get far, however, before a large, rocky arm sprouted out of the side of the mini mountain and punched her right out of the sky. She crashed hard into the ground with a small impact crater.

"Ultragirl!" Siren shouted in concern then ran over to the whole her friend was currently lying in. "Are you all right?"

The answer came in the form of the blonde taking off like a rocket and flying to the other side of the structure. Unfortunately, another arm sprouted out from that side as well and smacked her down once again.

"Umm...Cyborg, isn't that one just a _bit_ too much?" Robin asked as he watched Ultragirl try to overcome the mountain a few more times. "I mean if she wasn't invulnerable that could have killed her."

"Nah, I got it under control," Cyborg reassured him. "If it was any other flier it'd just grab them or give them a gentle tap. I knew she could take more so I decided to turn it up a notch."

"To what? 11?" Beast Boy snapped with a cringe of another blow.

"Hey, she's the one who keeps trying to fly over it. It's not _my_ fault."

"Uh huh," Raven nodded, unconvinced.

"But why would you build such a device that could disable someone who can fly _and_ is invulnerable?" Starfire asked, giving Cyborg an accusatory look.

"Oh come on Star don't look at me like that! It's a trying course, it's _supposed _to be hard!" he defended himself.

"Uh huh," the redhead nodded in almost the exact same fashion as Raven.

Back at the mountain obstacle, Siren was pulling Ultragirl out of the sixth crater she had been knocked into in as many minutes.

"Okay, even _you_ have to be feeling these by now," she commented.

"I _may_ be getting a tiny headache," the blonde mumbled as she dusted her off her clothes.

"In any case I think the only way to get over this thing is to just _climb_ over," Liberty Girl surmised

"Exactly what I was thinking," Siren agreed.

"Well, you know what they say, ladies first," Kid Devil offered, motioning for the girls to take the lead.

Instead of move towards the mountain, however, they all just glared at the demonic teen. He stared back at them blankly and blinked a few times.

"What?" he asked.

"Two of us are in skirts and this thing has a tendency to ride up a bit when I stretch too much," Siren explained, tugging on the end of her legless costume a bit.

"Oh. Right. Sorry, wasn't think about that," he said weakly.

"Suuuure you weren't," Liberty Girl said with a roll of her eyes.

"In any case, _you're_ going first," Ultragirl told him.

"All right, all right already," Kid Devil sighed then turned to the rocky face.

He started to climb up the man/machine made mountain and once he was far enough up the girls all followed after him. There were many strained grunts and groans coming from the group as they dredged upwards, as well as a few muted curses coming from Ultragirl. Surprisingly, there didn't seem to be any other traps or surprises built into the structure. It was more of an endurance test than anything. One they at least halfway past as they made it to the top of the mountain.

"Alright...so...how do we get down?" Kid Devil asked as he caught his breath.

"How do you think?" Siren retorted just before she started climbing down the other side.

The red skinned teen looked at her like she was crazy then looked back at the other two girls still standing with him, particularly Ultragirl.

"Where does she get all this energy?" he asked in surprise.

"Don't ask me," she shrugged before she moved over to the ledge. "Hmm...I wonder..."

She hopped off the side and stared to gently float down towards the ground. Much to her great relief, no hands came out to swat her away like an errant fly. She let out a small sigh before continuing her descent. She stopped when she was near Siren and glanced over at her friend.

"Need a lift?" she offered.

Siren stopped in her tracks and thought about it for a moment. She looked at her friend then down at the ground below then back at the blonde.

"Sure, why not?" she shrugged.

"Well don't get _too_ excited about it," Ultragirl muttered then reached out to wrap her arm around the tan skinned girl's waist and pull her close to her.

Siren wrapped her arms around Ultragirl's shoulders for stability before the two started to slowly drift down to the ground. Back on the top of the mountain, Liberty Girl stared at the display in slight indignance.

"Well _that's_ totally fair," she grumbled.

"Huh?" Kid Devil asked absently, staring intently at the two girls.

The petite girl just sighed before she smacked him gently on the arm.

"Come on, let's go," she said then started down the other side of the mountain.

"Oh. Yeah. Mountain. Right," he muttered then followed her down.

The trip down the mountain was as uneventful as the trip up though it _did_ lack the frustrated curses of Ultragirl. Once Liberty Girl and Kid Devil's feet touched the ground, it began to shake again as the mountain retracted into the island.

"You've got to be kidding me," Liberty Girl sighed with a shake of her head.

"Never mind that, we're almost through," Siren spoke up, pointing to the bell just a few feet away.

"Yeah come on guys! It's right here! Totally ready to be rung!" Impulse cheered them on.

He wasn't the only one as the other Titans candidates shouted encouraging words from the other side of the course. The four looked at each other for a moment before they all smiled widely and made a mad dash for the bell. Right before they reached it, however, the sound of a cannon being fired rang out across the course. The group looked up to see a cannon sticking out of one of the larger rock formations on the island and a big net flying towards them.

"Incoming!" Kid Devil shouted right before he let out a torrent of fire breath to burn the net up.

The girls shielded themselves from the charred remains floating down then stormed the bell site, each one of them ringing it in succession. Kid Devil was the last to ring it, but made up for that by ringing the loudest and longest of the other hopefuls, and even the Titans themselves, all cheered the five on.

"Whooo! Yeah! The crowd goes bananas!" Beast Boy shouted happily.

The only one not celebrating was Cyborg who looked rather frustrated. He took out those frustrations by slamming his fist into a nearby rock.

"Crowd ain't the only thing going bananas!" he grumbled irritably.

"Uh..Cyborg you remember that we _want_ some of them to be pass, right?" Robin asked his friend.

"Yeah, yeah I know, it's just...I mean..."

"He's upset that people breaking all this new toys," Raven offered with a slight smirk.

"Yes! Wait...no!" he stammered.

Robin chuckled a bit then lay a comforting hand on the cybernetic teen's shoulder.

"If it's any consolation they were good traps. I just think they were just slightly better. In fact they seemed to work rather well together," he mused.

"I guess so," Cyborg agreed, though he still sounded a bit disheartened.

He shook the mood off then looked down at his clipboard again.

"Alright enough sulking, Omega, Blood Dread, Yellow Jacket, Gust and Pirate Girl, get your butts up here now!" he instructed.

The five did as instructed and stepped up to the same line as the previous team.

"All right let's do this! Blood Dread is ready to conquer this course with his extremeness!" the dreadlocked hero proclaimed.

"Well, don't expect anything of what you just saw to help you," Cyborg cautioned them. "The course changes with each new team. You know, just to keep things interesting."

"We will be ready to deal with whatever comes our way, sir!" Omega said rather formerly.

"You better be," the tall Titan smirked. "Now. Get ready. Get set...GO!"

Once again, the team of five raced forward into the unknown. True to his word, the gauntlets of turrets the first five fought were replaced with series of net tossers. Yellow Jacket flew out of the range of them while Blood Dread and Pirate Girl used their swords to slice them to ribbons. Omega did the same with the edge of his shield when he simply couldn't jump out of the way of them.

"Don't worry guys, I got this one," Gust remarked as she hovered above the ground and held out her arms.

She waited until the next barrage of nets were flung towards them then created a large wind stream to blow them all back towards the launchers themselves and tangled them up.

"Good job solider, now let's go!" Omega encouraged to which the others nodded and continued forward.

"This track isn't hardcore enough for Blood Dread! Where is the challenge?" Blood Dread cried out.

"Oh, I got your hardcore right here," Cyborg muttered before he pressed another button on his arm.

From either side of the field a series of holes opened up and metal platforms raised up carrying familiar black and grey robots on them.

"Hey wait. Aren't those...?" Robin asked pointing to the humanoid figures.

"Sladebots, yep," Cyborg nodded. "There were so many pieces of those things laying around after all those attacks I was able to put some back together and use them on the course here. Don't worry they're still just carrying paint ball guns and they've _all_ been reprogrammed to be harmless."

"Dude! That's like _the _phrase to make them go nuts again and kill everyone!" Beast Boy shouted in horror.

"Eh. That's just in the movies, we'll be fine," he waved off.

"You're making it _worse_!" the green channeling wailed then tried to lean on Raven for support.

She, however, sidestepped him to let him fall rather harshly to the ground. The others barely noticed as they were more focused on watching the other heroes squaring off against the mini horde of reprogrammed Sladebots. Omega held out his shield to block the paint balls while Pirate Girl stood behind him and fired off a few blasts from her Magic Gun that knocked out a couple of the bots. Once she helped ease the numbers up a bit, Omega slipped the shield off his arm then pulled it back before he launched it forward. It flew quickly through the air and right through the necks of a few of the Sladebots like a hot knife through butter. The now headless bots stumbled around a bit with their neck holes sparking before they collapsed. Omega caught his shield effortlessly and slipped it back onto his arm.

"Keep the advantage men! Press forward!" he ordered.

"Hey what about us?" Gust protested as she used a few well placed bursts of winds to push back some of the Sladebots.

"You know what I meant!" Omega shot back then noticed the tallest in their group was out in the open. "Blood Dread get behind my shield!"

"Blood Dread has his own shield!" the extreme warrior declared.

He then reached up and grabbed Yellow Jacket's ankle as the armored hero flew by and yanked him down so he could hold in him front of his body.

"Whoa! Hey, what are you doing?" Yellow Jacket screamed out desperately.

His answer came in the form of three of the Sladebots turning their paint ball guns towards him and riddling his yellow and black armor with red paint.

"Hey! Hey no fair man!" he yelled.

Blood Dread just ignored his cries as he moved towards the robots. Once he was in close enough he swung Yellow Jacket around by his ankle like a club to knock the three pests away. He then released his grip at the end of his swing, which scene the insect theme hero skidding along the ground. He came to stop with a slight bounce and let out a small groan as he drifted off into unconsciousness. As a final insult to his injury, one of the fall Sladebot's arms landed near him and twitched involuntarily so that it shot a paint ball right into the faceplate of his helmet.

"Dude! That was _totally_ not fair!" Beast Boy shouted from the sidelines then turned to Robin. "You're not gonna let him get away with that are you?"

Robin scowled a bit as he watched the very unheroic Blood Dread plow through the rest of the robots and leave his supposed teammates in the dust. He then regarded the fallen Yellow Jacket with sympathetic look. Despite what should have been an easy decision he found himself torn.

"He's _not_ going to get away with it Beast Boy but...unfortunately...we _still_ have to count Yellow Jacket out," he said sullen.

"But it wasn't his fault!" the green changeling protested.

"Correct! The fault lays with that overly large Grolldersnotch!" Starfire agreed, shooting a rather _un_-Starfire look at Blood Dread.

"I _know_!" Robin snapped back then let out a small breath to calm himself down. "Sorry. Look I know it's not fair but if we start making exceptions for one person we'll have to make exceptions for everybody and this whole thing will be rendered moot. I know it's not fair and I know it stinks, but for now that's the way it has to be."

"You're right, it _does_ stink," Beast Boy muttered, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Quite so," Starfire agreed, placing her hands on her hips and turning away.

"I'm not much of a fan of it either," Raven chimed in.

Robin just sighed and rubbed his temples.

"Hey man, I know what you mean," Cyborg supported him but then smiled evilly. "But I hope you won't mind if I make the course a little more difficult for our dreadlocked friend."

The Boy Wonder looked up at him and returned the smile.

"Not one bit," he said quietly.

Cyborg's smile increased a bit as he pressed another button on his forearm. This time the signal caused two cannons to pop out of the ground just before the wooden wall. They also just _happened_ to pop right as Blood Dread was running by. They fired, but in spite of his large size, the extreme teen was able to duck down in time to avoid the paint balls and cause the machines to fire on each other. He then drew his sword and stabbed it down the barrel of the cannon on his right before he sliced the left one right off it's pedestal. He twirled the sword around in his hand before he placed it back in the sheath on his back then continued on.

The other Titans blinked in amazement.

"Okay, _that_ was kind of impressive," Cyborg noted, even as he lamented the loss of his machines.

The rest of the Titans just nodded in agreement.

He was so distracted by the impressive display that he barely noticed that Blood Dread had already made it across the hanging rope while the others were close behind him. In particular Gust who was trying to just fly over the trap just as Ultragirl and Siren had done in their run.

"Not this time," he mumbled before he activated another trap.

Another set of orbs deployed around the pool but this time instead of shooting paint balls they were firing bolos and were specially targeting the blonde flying girl. She flew in a few erratic patterns to avoid being caught then blew back some of the orbs with a quick burst of wind. Unfortunately, as she focused on the ones in front of her, she failed to notice the ones that had flown behind her and fired. She let out a surprised squeak as the high tensile lines wrapped around her arms and legs and sent her plummeting into the water below.

"Cyborg she can't swim like that!" Robin shouted erratically before he tried to move forward to help the girl.

"Easy man, I got this," Cyborg assured him with an outstretched arm that held his friend back.

The Boy Wonder along with the rest of the spectators there watched in relieve as a mechanical arm carrying Gust rose from the water and gently placed her on the side of the pool.

"So...am I out?" she asked weakly.

"Don't worry solider, we'll carry on in your name!" Omega promised as he moved his way across the rope.

He was only about halfway across, however, when the orbs came back and started to fire on him. Despite hanging from his arms he was able to avoid the first few attacks by pulling his legs up and making himself as small as he could. It was an effective, if not desperate, maneuver but he knew he couldn't keep it up forever. Thankfully he was saved from falling into the drink by two blasts of energy zapping the orbs out of the sky. He looked over to the first wall to see Pirate Girl hanging there with her Magic Gun held out in front of her. She gave him a quick wink and smile as a way to say "You're Welcome". He smiled back at her but his expression quickly changed and in a surprisingly effortless motion, pulled the shield off his back and threw it towards her. Pirate Girl let out a surprised shriek and started to duck her head but the shield swung harmlessly past her and smashed the orb that had snuck up behind her.

In a move that seemed to defy physics, the shield flew over her head again to return to it's master. Omega caught it with his free hand but unfortunately the motion caused the rope to sway which in turn caused him to loosen his grip. Despite a valiant effort, his fingers eventually slipped off the rope and he fell into the surprisingly warm water below him. Unlike Gust, however, he _was_ able to swim his way over to the side and climb out where he sat down next to her still bound form.

"So much for carrying on in my name, huh?" the blonde remarked.

"Sometimes in war these things happen," he muttered weakly. "But thankfully Pirate Girl can carry on the mission for both of us."

"That's great. Can you untie me now?"

True to Omega's word, Pirate Girl continued on, making her way across the rope surprisingly easily. She quickly descended the other wall then chased after Blood Dread who had a good head start on her and didn't seem to notice, or care, that rest of his "teammates" were far behind him or knocked out of the game. Part of her thought about giving him a well deserved shot in the ass with her gun but she didn't want to sink to his level. Besides, heroes were supposed to be better than that. So she resolved to continue on and win this thing for not only her fallen comrades but also to show that arrogant jerk up. With that thought burning through her head, she planted her foot firmly on the ground to run as fast and hard as she could...

...and ended up setting off a trap that launched two small balloons full of red paint towards her. She let out an irritated cry as the splatted perfectly on each one of her impressive breasts.

"Oh come on!" she snapped.

Both Raven and Starfire cast rather suspicious looks on Cyborg at the surprisingly accurate aim of those balloons. Despite them being behind him and not saying anything, the cybernetic teen seemed to sense their eyes burning holes into him, which was real fear when Starfire was involved, and he quickly turned around to give them a defensive look.

"Hey it's not _my_ fault they make...easy targets!" he said quickly.

Neither girl seemed to buy that excuse and they continued to glare at him as Starfire placed her hands on her hips and Raven crossed her arms over her own sizable bust. Cyborg laughed nervously then discretely scooted over to hide behind Robin. Or to hide as best he could given that he was much taller than the Boy Wonder. The tense moment was, thankfully, brought to a rather abrupt end by a panicked shriek from Beast Boy.

"Dudes he's gonna make it out of the course!" the green boy screamed, pointing frantically to the retreating Blood Dread.

The outburst snapped the other Titans out of their moment and they all turned their heads to see the tall, dreadlocked boy quickly making his way towards the bell where the other five teen heroes stood. Much like the Titans themselves, none of them seemed very keen on the idea of the brash boy potentially being a member of their team.

"Oh no he is _not_!" Cyborg declared before roughly pushing a big, red button on the back of his right hand.

With that, a large metal brace sprang up from the under the dirt right as Blood Dread's left foot hit the ground. It snapped around his ankle and held him in place. He struggled to free himself and was about to draw his sword to try to slice the brace open when dozens of cannons sprouted up all around him.

"Oh...sh-" he started.

His curse was cut short when all the cannons fired on him at once for several long, stinging seconds. When it was finally over he looked more like a walking blob of red paint than a superhero. He slowly reached up to pull off his shades as he wobbled back and fourth a bit and blinked a few times.

"That...was totally not radical," he mumbled.

It was only then that the brace let go so that he could fall roughly to the ground. The cannons retracted among his pained moans as the other collected heroes all looked with a strange sense of satisfaction.

"All right!" Cyborg exclaimed, clapping his metal hands together to gather everyone's attention. "So we'll just get him scooped off the course and reset the traps so the rest of you can try your hands at it. As you can see it's not quite as easy as you'd thought it would be, huh?"

The remaining ten candidates all nodded in agreement as they seriously began to rethink their decisions to try out for the Teen Titans. Still, for better or worse, there was no turning back now...

**To Be Continued...**

**Author's Notes: **Finally...FINALLY...after three long months I have come back to the Teen Titans!

*Ahem*

Sorry, still have a bit of last week's Rock promo in my mind. It was _awesome_. He's still got it. Anyway, yes I'm _finally_ getting back to this fic! Sorry for taking so long guys, it's just been hard to get my muse to focus on it. Apparently it really wants to work more on The Batman than Teen Titans. Which is fine 'cause I do have some really fun ideas for that series but I _do _want to finish this fic first. Thankfully the fact that this chapter is done is proof that I actually _will_ finish it!

Course much like the first two chapters, I had planned to have these next two chapters as just one but the characters got all talky and I realized if I ran through all the teams at once then it'd probably be a forty page chapter. And of course nobody wants to read _that_. So here's a small bite sized chapter that I hope was fun to read and had a few surprises in there. Plus I just really wanted to post something this month so I hope you guys won't blame me for that.

All right I really don't have much else to say so I'll leave it off here and hope to get to work on the next chapter soon enough! Start making those bets on who will survive the next round folks!

Til then...later!


	4. The Final Ten

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans, they are owned by DC comics, Cartoon Network and WB entertainment. I do, however, own the OCs contained within and use of them without my permission is strictly prohibited. You got that? _

**Recruitment Drive**

**Chapter 4:The Final Ten**

After waiting a few minutes to allow the last group of heroes to stagger off the obstacle course, or be carried off in Blood Dread's case, Cyborg directed them to the Tower's gym showers and laundry room so they could clean the paint off themselves and their costumes. He then focused his attention on the remaining ten teen heroes all waiting for their chance to run the course in hopes of becoming official Titans.

"All right so we've got five in and five out," he proclaimed almost cheerfully. "Who's left to try to make it?" He looked down at his clipboard. "Can I have Phantom, Tin Man, Miss Martian, Sparrow and Tigress front and center please?"

The five called heroes all look at each other in concern, their confidence wavering a bit due to seeing just what the obstacle course was capable of. Still, as they looked into each other's eyes, or where Phantom's eyes _should_ be, their resolve strengthened and they made a silent pact to get through the course together. They nodded to each other then all walked forward to the starting line. Cyborg looked them over appraisingly for a second before he took a deep breath and simply shouted:

"GO!"

The break in the usual routine surprised the bunch, but they quickly recovered and moved forward towards the obstacle course. Cyborg couldn't help but chuckle at their reactions to his startling command.

"You didn't say 'Get ready' or 'set'," Beast Boy pointed out.

He shrugged. "Eh I felt like mixing it up a bit."

Like the two groups before them, the four teens, and one junk bot, raced towards the rope wall while being on the look out for the first series of obstacles to appear. This time those obstacles took the form of robotic spider-like drones that popped up from the same holes the Sladebots had come out of before. Upon seeing this small force, Beast Boy's eyes grew wide and bright smile spread across his face.

"I suggest an army of spiiiiiiders!" he said rather sinisterly as he held his arms out and wiggled his fingers a bit.

Cyborg chuckled. "I just couldn't help myself when I was planning some of the different traps for this thing."

"You guys _really_ need to get away from the computer some more," Robin groaned.

"I...do not understand," Starfire noted with a perplexed look on her face. "What is so humorous about an army of arachnid?"

"Nothing. They're just being stupid. As usual," Raven deadpanned.

While Cyborg and Beast Boy were amused by the robotic spiders, the five heroes on the team didn't find them funny at all. In fact they were struggling to avoid the twin blasts of paint balls and nets launching out of the two cannons on the spiders' backs. Miss Martian had taken to the air to hopefully avoid their attacks and find way to help her friends, but her plan didn't work out quite as well as she had hoped as the spiders were still able to fire on her. She quickly phased so that a net launched at her simply passed harmlessly through her body. She then dive bombed the attacking droid, strengthening her density at the last second so her first slammed through the spider's head. She then picked up the body and tossed it at few more of the robots before she flew upwards again.

Following her example, Tin Man fired his claw hand towards one of the spiders, grabbed it's head, then swung it around on the wire attached to his arm so take out a small row of the spiders. When that was done he smashed the one in his hand hard against the ground, breaking it into several pieces. He then brought up a small laser on his left arm and fired off a few shots to take out more of the smaller bots before he followed Miss Martian towards the climbing wall.

Phantom used his powers to move in and out of the shadows produced by the late afternoon sun to confuse the spider bots into entangling each other in their nets which seemed to cause them to shut down. He had just managed to defeat two more in this style when his attention was drawn towards Sparrow. Or more importantly the firework like plasma balls she was shooting out to deal with the spiders that were crawling towards her.

"It's so...beautiful," he whispered in an awed tone.

Unfortunately, his admiration of her abilities was cut short when he noticed one of the spiders had managed to sneak up behind her and was ready to fire on her.

"No!" he shouted angrily just before he disappeared into another shadow.

He used the bot's own shadow to appear behind it and forced it's cannon's downward so it fired on itself. It twitched a few times before it fell to the ground lifeless. Upon hearing the noise behind her Sparrow quickly turned with her hands ready to fire but stop when she saw Phantom stepping over the fallen droid.

"You...left your back exposed," he explained softly.

"Oh," she replied as she relaxed a bit. "Well, thanks for the save."

"Believe me, it was my pleasure."

There was a moment of awkward silence as they merely stared at each other. Or more accurately it seemed like Phantom stared at Sparrow. She wasn't sure whether to take it as a compliment or mark it down as hints of him being kind of stalkerish. Before his gaze became too uncomfortable though their moment was broken up by a shout from Tigress.

"Hey that's great for you! Could _I_ get a little help over here?" she shouted as she held tightly onto the back of a spider so that it couldn't buck her off.

"I got it!" Miss Martian called out before she swooped down, phased her hand through the spider's head then pulled out it's main control circuit board. Like the others, the spider twitched a bit before it fell motionless to the ground. Tigress let out a sigh of relief and hopped off the lifeless robot.

"Thanks," she nodded towards the green girl.

"No problem!" Miss Martian returned with a bright smile then frowned just a bit. "Sorry about leaving you guys in the dust back there a bit I'm just _so_ excited to be a part of the Titans, you know?"

"I think we all are," Tigress returned.

"Then what are we all standing around here talking for? Let's go kick this course's butt!" Sparrow called out enthusiastically.

"Right!" the others cheered before they ran off to catch up to Tin Man.

When they reached the wooden wall, Tin Man sprouted a pair of makeshift rockets from his back and simply flew over it with Miss Martian quickly behind him. Phantom again disappeared into the shadows so he could reappear behind the wall on the other end of the pool. This left only Sparrow and Tigress to stare up at the obstacle in annoyance.

"I don't suppose you can actually fly like a bird, can you?" the cat girl asked hopefully.

"Nope, sorry," the other girl replied with a shake of her head. "Looks like we're doing this the old fashioned way."

"I was afraid you were going to say that," Tigress sighed.

She followed behind Sparrow as the two began to ascend the wall. Upon reaching the top they found that Tin Man and Miss Martian had already taken care of the drones the attacked the previous teams so that the way was clear for them to cross the rope. Sparrow quickly flipped herself over the wall to move in the classic hand-over-hand way while Tigress chose a much more "cat like" way of crawling over the top of the rope. It took precise movements of her hands and feet as well as a raise of her tail to keep her balanced as she moved across the slightly swinging rope. And of course she had to be careful not to hit Sparrow in the process.

"Hey watch the claws!" she snapped as she tried to avoid the sharp objects.

"You should have let me gone first then," Tigress retorted.

"Or you could have just _waited_!"

"Excuse me, you see that down there?" she nodded towards the pool beneath them. "And you know how cats feel about water right? I want to get this over with as quickly as possible."

Sparrow just sighed and shook her head. "Fine, fine, just be careful 'cause I'm not in the mood for a swim right now either."

"Well that's definitely an...interesting way to get across the pool," Robin noted from the sidelines.

"Yeah. Real...interesting," Beast Boy mused in a far off voice as his eyes seemed to be focused on a certain part of Tigress' anatomy that was on display thanks to her crawling.

It was a sight he was quickly cut off from when Raven's hand suddenly clasped itself over his wandering eyes.

"Hey! Raven! What are you doing?" he cried out erratically.

"I'll take my hand off your eyes once they're back in your head," she explained bluntly.

"Man!" Beast Boy groaned and kicked the dirt beneath him.

Back on the course, Tigress and Sparrow had just reached the other side of the rope, with Tigress leaping off the edge of the wall, flipping in midair and landing gracefully on her feet. She smirked at the other three heroes that stood before her.

"That was amazing!" Miss Martian complimented as she clapped gently.

"Well, you know what they say, cats always land on their feet," the cat girl replied with a smirk.

The redheaded alien looked confused. "They do? I didn't know about that. They _always_ land on their feet? How does that work?"

"It _does_ seem rather statically impossible," Tin Man pointed out. "Though I suppose if we had enough cats with a proper control group we could put this theory to the test."

Despite her the fur covering her body, Tigress would swear she felt a drop of sweat run down her face a she stared at the two.

"It's just an expression you guys," she tried to explain.

Any further discussion of the matter was cut off as Sparrow landed in a crouch between the three.

"One that we can talk about in better detail later," she explained as she stood up. "Right after we've made it through this course."

"You're really determined to win this thing, aren't you?" Tigress asked.

"Hey what can I say? I hate to lose," Sparrow replied with a shrug.

"Then we won't lose," Phantom encouraged, taking a step closer to her.

Again the brightly colored heroine seemed a bit caught off guard for the dark hero's concern for her.

"Right...," she muttered, taking a step back. "Anyway we better get to it. No telling what other surprises Cyborg has cooked up for us."

They soon found what else he had cooked up for them as no sooner did they step away from the wall as they were all sudden ensnared by mechanical tentacles that sprung up from the ground. They also learned the tentacles weren't just random traps but where in fact attached to a giant mechanical monster with one big eye and matching mouth. It let out a mechanized roar as it swung them around wildy. Despite the erratic swinging, and a bit of motion sickness, Sparrow was still able to fire of a few blasts into the creature's eye but they seemed to have no effect.

"Great," she muttered then looked over at her green skinned teammate. "Miss Martian! Can you phase through this thing?"

"I'll try but all this movement is making it hard to concentrate!" the redhead called back.

She closed her eyes to try and concentrate but it was quickly broken by a small jolt going through her whole body. One shared with the rest of the group as the creature sent short, sporadic shocks to them which caused them all to scream and twitch a bit.

"Cyborg!" Robin shouted once again as he turned a disconcerting eye to his friend.

"Rob you _gotta_ calm down," Cyborg returned in an annoyed voice. "I told you nothing here is going to hurt them. The shock they're getting is the same kind you'd get from a joy buzzer. It's totally harmless and just keeps them off their game a bit. If they're smart they'll figure a way out of it with no long term effects."

The Boy Wonder stared at him for a few seconds looking only slightly convinced.

"Fine. But I wasn't lying when I said we were going to have a talk about this course later," he chided.

"Personally I'm more concerned with how he came up with _that_ kind of trap to begin with," Raven remarked. "Have you been watching those DVDs under Beast Boy's mattress?"

"What? Hey! Come on Raven that's not cool! I don't any of _those_ kinds of DVDs!" Beast Boy shouted pathetically.

"Okay, you're right for once, I'm sorry," the grey skinned girl apologized but then quickly smirked. "I'm sure they're all on your computer."

"That's right," the channeling nodded and crossed his arms in satisfaction.

That is until he realized just what she had said a few second later.

"I mean no!" he tried to defend himself again.

"I am confused. What are 'those types of DVDs' to which you two are referring?" Starfire asked in a clueless tone.

"Trust me, it's better you don't know," Raven warned.

While the Titans discussed DVDs of dubious intent, the five struggling hopefuls had a much different conversation going on amongst them.

"Anyone have an-ow-idea on how to-ow-get-ow-out of here? Ow! Dammit!" Tigress growled as the shocks continued to assault her. "These shocks are-ow-frizzing up my-ow-fur!"

"I'm open to-ow-suggestions! Ow!" Sparrow called back as she tried to focus enough to summon up more of her fireworks.

"Actually, I'm working on something right now that might be the answer to our problem," Tin Man stated in a surprisingly calm, electronic voice.

"Could you please-ow-hurry? This isn't-ow-fun at-ow-all!" Miss Martian pleaded.

"Indeed. Ow!" Phantom agreed.

"It shouldn't take much longer," the robotic alien reassured them.

As he spoke, his misshapened eyes glowed and he seemed to be staring intently on the giant eye of the mechanical beast. A few seconds the later the thing not only stopped shocking them but carefully set them down before it went completely limp with a powering down sound, like someone turned off a computer. The creature feel back with a loud crash, leaving four of the five heroes confused and still slightly twitchy from the shocks they had received.

"What just happened?" Sparrow asked, looking intently at Tin Man.

"I was able to remotely hack into its CPU and shut the creature down," he said matter-of-factly. "It just took me a moment to adjust to it's rather odd software design. This Cyborg is either a genius or madman."

"I'm going with madman considering came up with something like _this_," Tigress remarked, given then limp tentacle a kick for good measure. "Seriously, what kind of training course involves being attacked by a tentacle monster?"

"It was _quite_ unpleasant," Phantom agreed.

"From what I've observed from the sites on the Internet here, that situation could have played out _much_ worse for all of you. Particularly the girls."

Miss Martian gave him a confused look.

"What do you mean?" she asked innocently.

Tigress smirked then wrapped an arm around the green girl's shoulders.

"Trust me, if you want to keep up this innocent schoolgirl routine, it's better you don't know," she advised before she slid her arm off her and continued forward.

Miss Martian continued to look confused for a moment before she levitated into the air to follow behind the cat girl. The others quickly followed suit, the goal of the bell quickly growing closer and closer. They moved slowly at first, always weary for extra traps that might spring up on them at the last minute. When it seemed like nothing else was about to attack them they started to move faster and fast until they were all in a light sprint towards the bell and the other five heroes behind it. All except Miss Martian, that is, who started to pull ahead of them as she flew through the air. A fact not lost on another skirt wearing flier within the vicinity.

"Miss Martian! Get to the ground or you'll have to deal with what I did!" Ultragirl warned her.

"I could just phase through it!" the Martian girl countered.

"But what about the rest of your team?" Siren pointed out.

Miss Martian looked behind her at the other four heroes quickly rushing up behind her and a look of embarrassment flashed across her green face. She paused for a moment when she landed to let the others catch up with her so she could run in stride with them, particularly Sparrow.

"I'm so sorry about that! I didn't mean to get so far ahead I just kind of got lost in the moment, you know?" she tried to explain.

"Don't worry about it," Sparrow waved off. "We're almost there so let's focus on that."

"Right," she nodded.

With that, they quickly feel back in step with the other three in the last stretch of the course. They stayed tense though as they continually expected some last minute trap to pop out at them. They weren't the only ones, though, as the Titans and the rest of the five candidates watched from the sidelines with baited breath. To everyone's great surprise, however, nothing _did _pop out at them and the five heroes quickly reached the bell and rang it loudly and proudly to the cheers of the others.

"Wooohoooo! Yeah Tigress! You go girl!" Beast Boy cheered rather emphatically.

"I hope you _both_ get fleas!" Cyborg growled under his breath.

Fortunately, the green changeling was too distracted with his cheering to hear the remark, but Robin _did_ hear it and it caused him to give his friend a confused and concerned look.

"That was a little harsh don't you think?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah I guess," Cyborg admitted with a sigh. "I'm mostly just mad at myself cause I couldn't think of another good trap at the end. Or at least nothing that wouldn't tip off the last five."

"Well...I'm...sure there are still plenty of traps left to get them," the Boy Wonder tried to console him as best he could. "Though remember..."

"I know, I know 'we want them to succeed'," he repeated tiredly. "But come on man you gotta admit it is _kinda_ fun to see them get caught in all these things."

"Well..." Robin stalled, rubbing the back of his head nervously.

"That's what I thought," the cybernetic teen smirked before he looked at the last five candidates. "By the way, you girls can go ahead and go."

"Wait, you mean right now? Just go for it?" Spoiler asked in confusion.

"Yep. You five are the only one's left so there's no need to grandstand anymore. So GO!" he suddenly shouted.

The unexpected scream started the remaining five into quickly taking off into the course. Cyborg chuckled a bit and turned back to the other Titans.

"Okay, having fun again," he informed them.

"Glad _someone_ is," Raven remarked as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Are we almost done with this?"

"Like I said these are the last ones."

"So who are they again?" Beast Boy asked, checking his clipboard.

"Spoiler, Batgirl, Secret, Mary Marvel and Dead Girl," Robin ticked off without even glancing at his notes.

The green teen just stared at him blankly for a few seconds. "How do you do that?"

"It's a gift," he shrugged off.

"While I am always happy to engaging in the chatting of chit, perhaps we should pay attention to the heros in the course?" Starfire suggested.

"Oh you're right Star!" Cyborg said excitedly as he turned to watch the girls. "You wouldn't want to miss the last few surprises I have in store for them. This first one's my favorite!"

They all watched as once again platforms rose out of the ground and carried humanoid figures with them. Like before with the Sladebots, these figures were reproposed killer robots but this time they looked like fully mechanical, yellow versions of Cyborg.

"Those aren't-" Robin started in surprised.

"Yep! Some of the remaining robots Brother Blood used!" he said proudly. "There were a whole bunch of those things left all over the Titans East's tower so Bumblebee and I decided to put them to some good use as training bots."

"I suppose these ones are reprogrammed and disarmed too?" Raven asked skeptically.

"Yep. Totally harmless. I like to call them...The Cyborgmen!" he proclaimed with a bit of a flourish.

Unfortunately, it seemed lost on the rest of the team.

"Come on, don't you get it?" he tried again.

"All I get is that you've been watching _way _too much Space Channel lately," Raven shot back.

"Eh, whatever," Cyborg waved off before he went about watching his creations fight the competing heroes.

The five girls had stopped only for an instance when the robots appeared before them. The first one barely had time to raise it's modified paint ball gun arm before a batarang split it's head in half. That action was followed by Batgirl planting the heel of her boot in what was left of it's face and knocking the head completely off.

"Delete!" another one screeched from beside her but was it was quickly taken down when Spoiler used her bo staff to pole vault over to it and plant her own heal in it's head.

It crashed to the ground with a loud "clang" as the purple costumed heroine landed surprisingly gracefully next to it then held out a hand towards her friend.

"Back-to-back?" she offered.

Batgirl merely nodded as she took the offered hand to help her stand. Once back on her feet, she turned around and placed her back against Spoiler's as the two readied for another assault by the robots.

While the two costumed vigilantes worked together to beat back their attackers, Mary Marvel had no problem taking the Cyborgmen single handedly. Well, perhaps that was a bit of an exaggeration as she was using both hands to toss the yellow and black robots around like broken toys. She picked two up by the back of their necks then smashed their faces together, causing their heads to explode and sending their twitching bodies to the ground below. She dusted off her hands and smirked a bit.

"Well _this_ isn't so hard," she remarked.

"Oh, we'll see about that," Cyborg said with a dangerous glint in his mechanical eye.

He pressed button on his left arm and the Cyborgmen's eyes all flashed briefly. They stalked away from their fights with the other girls and focused their attention on Mary. As one they lifted their cannon arms and fired a torrent of paint balls up at her. With blinding speed, she passed through the hailstorm and started to take out the robots. Before anyone could actually register what had happened, Mary stood a top pile of the broken Cyborgmen with not a single blemish on her bright, white uniform.

"Wow," Spoiler breathed.

"Indeed," Batgirl nodded.

"Okay, _that_ was impressive," Dead Girl remarked.

"I know! That was amazing!" Secret gushed as she floated over to Mary.

"It was nothing really," the brunette waved off before she floated into the air and looked over at Cyborg. "Just means you're going to have to do better than that to stop me!"

She tossed him a quick smirk before she flew towards the rope and pool obstacle, the other four girls close behind her. Much like all the other fliers she completely bypassed the rope and simply sailed over towards the other side. Unlike them, however, she wasn't met with a small volley of floating orbs full of paint balls or bolos and was instead greeted by an energy net that sprang up right as she crossed over the second wall. Her speed and momentum kept her from stopping and before she knew it was engulfed in the net. She let out a small scream as the energy raced through her body and no matter how hard she struggled she couldn't seem to break free of it. She continued to fight against it for a few more seconds before she finally decided to resort to the Marvel Family's final, secret weapon.

"SHAZAM!" she shouted towards the heavens.

Much to everyone's surprise the heavens actually seemed to answer as a small storm cloud formed just above where Mary struggled and shot a lighting bolt down directly on her. Unfortunately, the combination of the magic lighting and energy of the net caused some sort of backlash that sent Mary screaming to the ground. When the smoke cleared she was free of the net but she had also been transformed back to plain old Mary Bastion and was unconscious. Everyone stopped for a moment as they all stared at her with baited breath for some kind of sign that she would be okay.

That was all except for Batgirl who quickly made it over the pool, hopped down from the wall then raced over to the fallen girl to check for a pulse. She let out a small sigh of relief when she felt a strong, if slow, rhythm under her finger tips. She raised her right hand in the "Okay" sign to let the others know that everything was all right. They all shared her earlier relieved sigh just before Robin glared at Cyborg.

"I know, I know, we're gonna have a talk later," Cyborg groaned. "But to be fair, I didn't know she could do that or that it would have that kind of effect on her."

"I _still_ think this course it too dangerous and you should have consulted with the rest of us first!" Robin pressed again.

"Look man, it's gonna leave people with a few bumps and bruises but nothing that's fatal. I promise you that."

Any reply Robin was going to say was cut off by a loud scream as everyone turn to see Dead Girl flying through the air, propelled from a hidden springboard under the ground. She sailed helplessly for several seconds before she came to a rough landing one of the more jagged rock formations on the island. More precisely she ended up with the tip of the rock formation sticking out through her mid section.

"Well _that's_ just bad timing," Cyborg scoffed even as Robin glared daggers at him. "But I'll go tweak that one once the rest of them have made it through."

"Are you all right?" Starfire called out to Dead Girl in concern.

"I'm fine!" the pale girl called back, giving a thumbs up before she frowned a bit. "Does this mean I'm out?"

"I'm gonna have to go with a big 'Yes' on that one," Raven snarked.

"Craaaaaap!" Dead Girl groaned then struggled to pull herself from her impalement. "Hey, could you guys give me a hand here? I think I'm stuck."

As Starfire flew over to pull the life-impaired girl off the jagged rock, the remaining three girls continued on through the course. They dodged paint balls and pitfalls as they ran ever closer to the bell and other ten new Titans cheering them on. Naturally Batgirl seemed the most adept at avoiding all the traps and even tossed out a few batarangs to disable the paint ball turrets. She had just taken out another one when the ground just in front of her left foot collapsed into a deep pit. She stumbled a bit but quickly held her arms out to help her keep her balance and just barely managed to stay out of the pit. She allowed herself a moment of relaxation when she heard a loud screech behind her.

"LOOK OUT!"

She turned just in time to see Spoiler jumping out of the way of one of the paint ball turrets and directly into her path. Despite her quick reflexes, even Batgirl was unable to dodge before the purple clad heroine crashed into her and sent them both tumbling down into the pit below. They landed roughly with Batgirl laying face down in the dirt and Spoiler sprawled out on top of her. To add further insult to the injury, a small collection of cannons popped out from the sides of the pit and pelted them both with a barrage of paint balls. Once it was done, Batgirl lifted her head up so she could lay her chin on her left hand while she tapped her right index finger against the ground in annoyance.

"Well _this_ is embarrassing," she muttered.

"Sorry Cass," Spoiler apologized sheepishly.

Batgirl just sighed and laid her head back down again.

Back on the surface side of the course, it finally dawned on Secret that she was the only one left.

"Umm...what do I do now?" she wondered allowed.

"Come on! You're almost here!" Siren encouraged.

"Yeah! You can do it!" Sparrow added.

Their cheers quickly got the rest of the small group on the other side of the bell cheering as well which helped to give Secret some more confidence. She smiled broadly at them then nodded and started to fly towards them, the paint balls simply passing through her ghostly body and her place in the air keeping her from falling into the pits. Her spirits soared as she saw the bell and the group get closer and closer. She smile brightly at the thought of being a member of the illustrious Teen Titans and all the good she could do to help people. Not to mention all the friends she would make! It was going to be the start of a brand new life for her. Quite literally actually. All she had to do was ring that bell. She was so close enough only a few feet away.

And that's as close as she ever got. Right as she was about to reach the bell, a glass tube shot up from the ground and incased her. She watched in horror as it sealed itself shut around her. She tried to pass right through it but something in the glass prevented her from doing so. She beat against the sides furiously, trying to break her way free.

"Come on, let me out!" she shouted helplessly. "That's not fair I was almost there! What this stuff?"

"So glad you asked!" Cyborg's voice remarked before a video screen appeared on the glass in front of her. "This tube is coated with my own special blend of chemicals that makes it impossible for someone with mutliphasing powers to actually phase their way through it. So consider yourself trapped until the test is over. Oh also consider yourself: DENIED!"

The word flashed on the screen in giant red letters and remained even after Cyborg finished. Secret's expression fell as she stared at it for longer then she knew she really should have. She then crossed her arms over her chest and slowly slid down to the bottom of the tube until she sat with her legs close to her chest.

"Didn't want to join your stupid team anyway," she pouted.

"Well _that_ hardly seems fair," Kid Devil objected.

"I don't know, I mean it _could_ have been me or Phantom in there and we wouldn't have been able to get out," Miss Martian pointed out.

"Speak for yourself," Phantom scoffed as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"The point is, as cruel as it seems it's just a random trap that could have happened to any one of us," the green girl explain but then frowned a bit. "Though I _do_ think the message was a little unessercary."

"Seems kind of cruel to me," Kid Devil spoke up again. "Is _this_ the kind of team we're on now?"

"_Are_ we even on the team?" Ultragirl asked. "I mean...what do we do now?"

"Good question," Siren nodded then looked across the field towards Robin. "So what do we do now?"

The Titans all blinked then looked around at each other in search of an answer.

"Did we actually have a plan for the people who won?" Raven asked.

"Well, I'd say the first step is to take them into the Tower and let them get acquainted with it while we figure out what to do with them," Robin suggested.

"And what _are_ we gonna do with them?" Cyborg asked.

The Titans' leader rubbed his chin in thought as he stared out over the group of winners. Ten in all. More than they actually expected to win and certainly more than they actually needed on their team right now. And Titans East seemed to be doing well, too. So what would they do with that group of ten new Titans who all worked so well as teams on the obstacle course?

His eyebrows perked up a bit and he smiled widely as an idea began to form in the back of his mind.

"I have a plan..."

**To Be Concluded...**

**Author's Notes: **So after taking much longer than I would have liked I _finally_ got this chapter done! Whoo! Actually this whole fic is taking longer than I thought it would but that's mostly due to the amount of holidays and other fics in between chapters that held this one up for so long. Still I hope you guys haven't minded the wait and that you've been enjoying this ride which is slowly winding down to a close. So what _will_ Robin do with all these new Titans now? Shouldn't be too hard to figure it all out since I kinda telegraphed it at the end there but to see how it all actually plays out you'll just have to wait for the next chapter.

Now the real question is, who was surprised at who got rejected and who actually made it through? It tried not to make _that_ too obvious though I think I might have at the end when I rushed through the last group. Sorry about that, but obviously I knew they weren't going to make it and I didn't want to linger on them a bit too much because of that. Plus I just got into a really good writing zone and all the scenes just kind of played out like that. I bet a lot of people were expecting Cassie to win, huh? Well I thought about it but it was more fun to keep her out of it. Of course I had to think of _how_ she would fail since she's pretty badass so I came up with the idea of Spoiler knocking them both into the pit.

Now don't get me wrong I love Steph, especially in the current Batgirl series, but let's be honest, she's not the most graceful of heros out there. So I don't think a mistake like that is _too_ out of character for her. Plus I thought it made for a funny scene.

In hindsight I might have been a _bit_ too cruel on Secret but again that's just kind of how the scene played out. Besides anyone who's been following my writing for awhile so know that when I'm building something up like that, something bad is about to happen. It's just the way I roll.

Still hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and I'll be back with the last one soon.

Hopefully.


	5. The New Teen Titans

_Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans, they are owned by DC comics, Cartoon Network and WB entertainment. I do, however, own the OCs contained within and use of them without my permission is strictly prohibited. You got that? _

**Recruitment Drive**

**Chapter 5:The New Teen Titans**

Once the heroes who had not passed the obstacle course had been allowed to tidy themselves up to help regain some of their lost dignity they were sent on their ways with _much_ apologizing from Cyborg and promised a slot in the next Titans Tryouts. The ten that _had_ made it past the course were then led to a small waiting room in the tower where they mingled amongst themselves as the main five Teen Titans watched them on a monitor and decided their fates.

"So you're saying keep them in the same groups they tried out as and just make two new teams?" Cyborg asked for clarification.

"Right," Robin nodded as he continued to watch the monitor. "They worked well in the teams they were already in and it seems like a shame to break them up."

"I dunno man, it _still_ sounds like a lot of work. I mean we got set them up in different cities, contact the head of those cities to let them know what's going on, build _two_ completely new towers..."

The Boy Wonder smirked at the last statement and caste an amused look towards his friend.

"Somehow I thought you might actually _like_ that last part," he remarked.

"Oh trust me I'd _love_ to design two new towers, but the rest of it is a pain," Cyborg explained.

"Plus doesn't this all seem a little...excessive?" Raven asked. "I mean the Titans are already 'unlimited' so why two whole new teams when we can just put these guys on our already huge roster and use them as needed?"

"Because as helpful as the new, expanded roster is for the big stuff it's still rather haphazard," Robin told them. "Having a team focus on one certain city or area helps keep us more organized and better able to keep the bad guys at bay."

"Okay, okay I got all _that_," Beast Boy started.

"Really? _You_ got all that?" Raven snipped with a slight smirk.

The green changeling scowled and crossed his arms over his chest in annoyance.

"Hey come on, Raven. I _do_ pay attention sometimes!" he huffed. "In fact, I bet I pick up on things even _you_ miss!"

"Like what?"

In response, Beast Boy walked up to the monitor and made motions towards the second group consisting of Sparrow, Phantom, Miss Martian, Tin Man and Tigress.

"Like that fact that these guys are totally us!" he explained, puffing his chest up proudly.

The rest of the Titans, however, seemed rather unconvinced.

"Um...we're not really seeing it BB," Cyborg informed him.

Beast Boy's jaw hit the floor in complete shock and he stared at his friends like they had all grown second heads.

"Oh come on! You guys really don't see it?" he cried out desperately.

They all shook their heads in unison. Beast Boy slumped up a bit in momentary defeat but then stood up straight with a determined look on his face. He then spun back around towards the monitor and pointed a finger as Sparrow.

"Butt kicking bird themed hero with red and green costume," he stated.

"Huh," Robin mused and rubbed his chin in thought.

Beast Boy's finger then went to Phantom, "Dark mysterious person with kind of a raspy voice that controls darkness."

"What do you mean 'raspy voice'?" Raven shot back, crossing her arms over her chest indigently.

He ignored her and moved over to Miss Martian, "Cute, friendly, redheaded alien girl who can fly and wears a skirt."

"We _do_ appear quite similar in some ways," Starfire noted.

He pointed to Tin Man next, "Robot looking dude."

"Technically he's an alien AI but I get what you're saying BB," Cyborg nodded.

He then moved his glove finger over to Tigress and paused a bit. "Well she can't shape shift but she _does_ have animal like powers so that _totally_ counts," he finished. "Guys, they're _us_! _We_ are they! They're like...I dunno...good guy versions of those Terror Sect creeps we dealt with a while back!" He paused again as he considered his last statement. "Hey whatever happened to those guys anyway?"

"Dunno," Cyborg shrugged. "They just kinda disappeared off the face of the Earth after they whooped our butts that one time. Course things _did_ get kinda crazy what with the return of Slade, the coming of Trigon, that whole Brotherhood of Evil thing, and then there was that Lordwardian invasion."

"Yeah good time for the big guns to be off in another galaxy when _that_ happened," Beast Boy muttered.

"Fortunately, Kim Possible was able to put a stop to them so the rest of us just had to do clean up duty," Raven pointed out.

Beast Boy cocked an eyebrow at her. "That's the second time you've brought up Kim Possible. What's with that?"

The normally reserved and stoic girl seemed flustered for just a second but it pasted by far too quickly for anyone to really notice.

"That's...not important," she tried to wave off.

The younger Titan still looked a little suspicious but any further questions he had on the matter were quickly cut off by Cyborg.

"You know, I heard it was actually her sidekick who saved the day that time," he pointed out.

"I find that _highly_ unlikely," Raven retorted with a bit of an annoyed tone.

"What you say comedy relief guys can't help save the day sometimes too? Remember who brought together the last band of free Titans to come bust your sorry butts out of the Brotherhood of Evil's frozen prisons? This guy!" Beast Boy proclaimed with a smug smirk as he pointed his thumbs at himself.

"That is true," Starfire acknowledged with a nod. "If Beast Boy can save all of us once, then perhaps..." she paused as her face scrunched up in thought. "What was the name of the Kim Possible's sidekick again?"

"Raymond something, right?" Cyborg asked Raven.

"What are you asking _me_ for?" she shot back.

"Well, you're suddenly seem to be the expert on all things Kim Possible so I figured you'd know the name of her sidekick and probably that little rat thing he hangs around with too."

"GUYS!" Robin suddenly screamed, stopping the conversation and drawing all attention back to him. "We're getting off track here."

The other Titans looked around sheepishly for a few seconds before getting their bearings again.

"Sorry," Beast Boy spoke up first.

"Yeah, sorry about that man," Cyborg agreed.

"Sorry," Raven said quickly.

"I am sorry as well," Starfire apologized.

Robin let out a small sigh and slumped his shoulders a bit.

"I didn't mean to yell but we've got to figure this thing out," he explained himself.

"Well we've got the teams, right? So what else do we need to do?" Beast Boy asked as he looked at the monitor again.

"First, we need to figure out who's going to lead their respective teams."

"Well _that's_ a no brainer with these guys," the green changeling remarked as he motioned to their suspiciously similar counterparts. "That'd have to be Sparrow, their Robin."

"You can't just base this kind of decision on that kind of thing Beast Boy," Robin tried to explain even as he rubbed this temples.

"Then how about the fact that she actually seemed pretty good at leading them?" Raven suggested.

"Yes, she was the one that rallied them the most so that they could emerge victoriously," Starfire interjected.

One of the Boy Wonder's hands move from his temple to his chin as he thought back on the try outs and how well Sparrow handled herself and the rest of her teammates during the obstacle course.

"You girls do have a point," he agreed.

"Siren also did the same thing for her team during their runs, so maybe she should led the other team," Cyborg suggested.

"That's true too," Robin nodded.

"So, Sparrow and Siren for the leaders. Problem solved," Beast Boy remarked as he wiped is hands together. "Man that was easy!"

"We'll still see if they'll agree to the lead and how they'll do," the original Titan leader pointed out.

"Well that's easy enough to take care of, we just put them through some more tests as we build their towers and get ready to move them," Cyborg spoke up.

The others all looked at him wearily.

"I'm not sure they could _survive_ anymore of your tests," Raven pointed out.

"Perhaps it _would_ be for the best if you were to focus mostly on the building of the towers while the rest of us focus on the training of the teams," Starfire advised him.

Cyborg almost fell completely over from how far he slumped forward and his head hung down low with a sorrowful expression.

"I said I was sorry," he muttered pathetically under his breath.

"It's...not that..." Robin quickly spoke up, trying to reassure his friend. "We...just think your skills would be put to better use designing new, top notch, state-of-the-art towers. Right guys?"

The other Titans started nodding furiously while giving compliments and large smiles. That seemed to lift the cybernetic boy's feelings and he stood start up, full of life and energy again.

"You guys are right! I _am_ the best one qualified to build these towers! So let's get building!" he exclaimed enthusiastically, pumping his right fist into the air excitedly.

Unfortunately, his arms fell back again and his excitement faded when he realized one crucial flaw in this idea.

"Uh..._where_ exactly am I building these towers?" he asked.

"Good question," Robin remarked then took a step towards the monitor again. "Well, Siren and Ultragirl are already well known in Chicago, so we could set them up there if they rest of their team don't mind moving. As for Sparrow's team...hmmm..."

He continued to stare at the monitor for a few seconds longer before he walked over to the main computer console and brought up a map of the United States. He studied it as intensely as he'd study a piece of evidence from a crime scene. The rest of the Titans remained perfectly quite as he did so, knowing all too well that it was never a good idea to interrupt him in this frame of mind. After a long, tense pause he finally cracked a smile and snapped his fingers with the answer.

"I got it! Sparrow's team will be placed in-"

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

"Iowa?" Sparrow cried out in horror.

The rest of the Teen Titans, both new and old, cringed just a little bit at the pitch she managed to reach with that outcry. Once Robin had decided on where they were place Sparrow's team he had the ten new Titans join the original five in the main room to inform them all of their decisions. While both Sparrow and Siren were surprised they had been chosen as leaders they accepted their roles to many congratulations of their new teammates. When told they would be staying in Chicago, Siren and Ultragirl were overjoyed, and while Liberty Girl, Kid Devil and Impulse were taken by surprise, they were more than willing to adjust.

Unfortunately, as they were all finding out Sparrow wasn't taking too well to where _her_ team was being placed.

"I mean...freaking _Iowa_?" she repeated, sounding no less horrified.

"Technically it's Des Moines, Iowa so it's the capital of the state," Robin tried to calm her.

"Oh great so I'll be at the best part of the middle of nowhere!" she snapped as she threw her arms up in the air then let them fall limply to her sides.

She then took a deep breath and let it out slowly to calm herself.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to sound ungrateful or anything it's just that...well I'm a big city girl! A mall baby! I gotta be out there with the people in the bright lights and crowded streets! Things like that! I just can't see myself being in the middle of...Corn Country!"

"I didn't know corn _had_ it's own country," Miss Martian whispered to Starfire.

"I believe it is an expression," she explained as best she could even as her own face wrinkled in confusion. "At least, I do not believe there is a whole country that is populated by nothing but corn."

"There's not," Raven spoke up quickly.

"Look, Sparrow, I know this will be a big adjustment for you but assure that Des Monies will at least have malls," Robin tried placate her.

"Yeah, probably those dinky little one story malls," she scoffed. "Full of tiny little stores and maybe a few national chains but after that it's nothing. Nada. El zilcho!"

"'El Zilcho'," Impulse mused then looked over at Kid Devil. "Hey you think it's too late to change my superhero name?"

"I don't think you could pull that one off," the demonic teen replied.

"Yeah you're right..." he agreed with a slight frown but then looked over at his new leader. "Hey Siren, you're Hispanic, right?"

"Only half and I'm not calling myself 'El Zilcho'," she quickly shot down.

"Awww!" Impulse sighed and snapped his fingers.

"Nice try, buddy," Kid Devil encouraged him, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"If it makes you feel any better Sparrow, a quick Internet search shows that Des Moines does have quite a few attractions such as their Botanical Center," Tin Man tried to cheer her up.

"Oh goodie, I could go look at _trees_ all day," she scoffed.

"I like trees. They provide plenty of shade," Phantom remarked, mostly to himself.

"You know I _have_ found I like climbing trees since I was turned half cat," Tigress remarked. "So I'm all for paying a visit there once we're set up."

"Okay, okay I get it, I get it I'm be kind of a bitch," Sparrow said, waving her hands around.

"I don't think that's what anyone was trying to say at all," Miss Martian corrected her.

"Maybe not, but I realized that's what I _was_ doing," she confessed then turned back to Robin. "Sorry about that, but like you said it's going to be a big adjustment for me."

"I know it is," he agreed with a slight nod before he looked to address the crowd. "It'll be a big change for all of you, but I want to know that we're here for you. Not just us and Titans East, but every single Honorary Titan as well. Because when you're a Titan you're not just a member of a superhero team, you're a member of a family. And that family looks after each other."

The mood in the room suddenly shifted after Robin's impromptu speech. While the mood was far from somber there was a seriousness to it. One that let everyone in the room know that this wasn't just a generic "welcome aboard" speech but rather a heartfelt sentiment that let them all know just what it meant to be a Titan. They just hoped they could all live up to that high expectation.

"Speaking of that kind of togetherness," Siren spoke up as she and Ultragirl shared a look before they approached Robin. "We...kinda have a favor to ask you."

He quirked an eyebrow at their expressions and gave them his undivided attention.

"What kind of favor?" he asked.

"Well...see...we have this friend," Siren started nervously.

"She's a hero like us but she's a little...different," Ultragirl tried to explain further.

Now Robin's interest was truly piqued and he crossed his arms over his chest as he pressed the issue.

"What do you mean by 'different'?"

Again they looked at each other unsurely and stumbled a bit over their words.

"Well..." they both stammered out.

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Even though the next few months were full of hard training and team building exercises, they seemed to fly by and before both the new teams knew it their own Titans Towers had been constructed. One in Chicago for the aptly dubbed "Titans Chicago" and the other in Des Monies for the far more broadly, and slightly comically, named "Titans Mid-West". Like the East and West towers, theirs were built in or around water with the Chicago one being placed on a man made island in the middle of Lake Michigan. It took tall and proud with freshly washed windows glistening in the midday sun to act as a beacon to the residents of "The Second City" to let them know that they were protected from every single threat imaginable and a few that weren't.

Just as soon as the new residents of the tower stopped marveling at it. Even though they had already been there for a week the five members of Titans Chicago were still exploring the massive structure items they may have missed. Not to mention not trying to get lost in the thing. Which made for quite an experience as Siren and Ultragirl were trying to play tour guide to another young heroine.

"And this would be the...um...actually...I'm not sure what this is," Siren remarked as she studied the print lay out on a tablet Cyborg had given her.

"What's the blue print say?" Ultragirl asked, leaning over her friend's shoulder to get a better look.

"Nothing. It's just a blank space," the other girl replied as she looked up at the large, empty room. "Guess this is a storage room or something." She then turned to the friend they were showing around. "Sorry about that."

Lady Justice smiled uncertainly, reaching up to adjust her domino mask with a gloved hand. She was of average height for her age, with pixie-cut sandy-blonde hair and long bangs. Most noticeably though was how unusually... curvaceous she was for her age. Though for superheroine she was dressed rather plainly, her costume composing of black trousers, short boots, a white turtleneck, white trench coat, gloves and the aforementioned domino mask.

Both Siren and Ultragirl understood though, why the young heroine put such little effort into her crime-fighting attire.

"Well, it's a very nice... storage room," she offered weakly, a slight but noticeable English lilt in her voice. "You can... probably fill it with all sorts of things..."

"Probably. _Whatever_ we decided to put in it at least," Siren remarked off hand as she look around the room again.

Her expression then grew slightly serious as she shared a look over towards Ultragirl who merely looked back at her before they both nodded and turned their attention to Lady Justice.

"Actually it's probably for the best we ended up here anyway," Siren started to explain. "That way we can actually talk without too much fear of the others seeing us just yet."

"LJ, we have something important to tell you," Ultragirl said softly as she gently laid a hand on the other girl's shoulder.

"You don't want me to be a hero anymore because I'm not officially recognized by the Titans," she stated softly, shoving her hands in her pockets and looking at her boots. "I had an idea already."

Both heroines gasped in horror at that remark.

"What? No! Why would you even think that?" Siren shouted in confusion.

"Yeah, we wouldn't do anything that cruel!" Ultragirl reassured her.

She paused, looking between the two girls somewhat taken aback. "You...you aren't trying make me quit? But...then...why did you talk me out of going to try out in the first place? I know I could have taken that course."

"Because...well..." Ultragirl stalled.

"We didn't want to scare away the other candidates or have the Titans think they were under attack," Siren explained.

The blonde powerhouse next to her just pointed a finger at her new leader and nodded in agreement.

"I wouldn't...I mean..." she sighed in defeat. "I'm not _that_ scarey when I...you know..."

"Not to the people who know you but to others you _do_ come off as a little..." Siren paused and tried to think of the right word.

"Terrifying," Ultragirl finished for her, even if she felt ashamed for doing so.

The look was matched by the one on the tanned skinned girl's face as she could only nod in agreement.

"...Well, then what did you want to show me then?" she asked, quickly taking the subject away from her unfortunate powers.

"It's not what we wanted to show you, it's what we wanted to tell you," Siren clarified. "We were able to talk to Robin and the rest of the original Titans after we got our teams figured out and we explained to them your...unfortunate situation."

"And they agreed you _would_ have crushed the test if you have been there," Ultragirl informed her.

"So in light of that, Robin authorized me to make you a reserve member of the team!" the new Titan leader said happily. "Congratulations!"

"W-what?" she squawked out, before covering her mouth. She looked between the two, excitement visible through her mask. "I mean...I get to be a Titan with you?"

The excitement spread to the other two girls who both had large, beaming smiles on their faces now.

"Yes!" Siren exclaimed happily. "Welcome to the team!"

Both were cut off mid-accolades by all 130 pounds of squealing teen heroine knocking them to the floor.

"How did you even _do_ that?" Ultragirl wondered as she easily picked up the smaller girl and stood back up. "Seriously there's _no way_ you should have been able to knock me down!"

"Who cares, I'm a Titan!" she grinned giddily jumping up and down, tightly clasping Siren's hands. "No more cops shooting at me and heroes trying to capture me! I'm in the big leagues now!"

"Okay, okay calm down," Siren tried to control the newest member of her team as she continued to hold her hands. "I mean we're _still_ gonna have to work on all that stuff given your other form but from now on you don't have to go it alone. You have a whole team, a whole _family_ that will help you deal with it."

Lady Justice flushed slightly around the corners of her mask, and smiled up at the two. "Thank you both, honestly. I'm sure it wasn't easy going to bat for me like that."

"You have _no_ idea," Ultragirl waved off.

"And you won't have to because it's not important. What _is_ important is that you're a member of the team now, even if it _is_ just reserve status. We can set you up with a room just as soon as I figure out where it is on this thing," Siren grumbled a bit as she started to scroll through the tower's blueprints again.

"Oh we can figured all that out later," the blonde remarked. "How about we introduce you to your new teammates for now?"

"I have teammates now," Lady Justice grinned to herself, trying to keep from having another joyous outburst. "Best. Day. EVER!"

Siren didn't even try to hide her smile as she pressed a button on the tablet that closed down the blueprints and brought up a PA system.

"Would the rest of the team please join Ultragirl and I in the main room? We have something important to tell you guys," she announced into the machine. Then quickly she added, "Whenever you guys can find it that is."

Thankfully, it didn't take long for the rest of the newly formed Titans Chicago to make their way to the spacious, fully furnished main room where they were all to meet their latest member.

"So boss lady what's the 41-whoa!" Kid Devil blurted out as soon as he saw Lady Justice, immediately erasing any other thoughts in his mind.

"Oh, hello...um...Devil Boy, was it?" Lady Justice asked curiously not at all taken aback by Kid Devil's appearance, like she would have been in her pre-hero days. She extended her hand. "My name is Lady Justice, it's a pleasure to work with you from now on."

"Um...no actually it's Devil Kid. No! Kid Devil! Kid Devil's my name. Well my superhero name anyway," he rambled on as he shook her hand rather clumsily. "The pleasure is all yours. I mean _mine_! The pleasure is all mine!"

"Apparently," she snickered to herself at the fluttered demon.

"Smooth Romeo, very smooth," Impulse mocked his friend as he quickly came between him and Lady Justice and took her still extended hand in his and started to shake it vigorously. "Pleased to meetcha. My name's Impulse!"

"H-hi...little...fast person..." Lady Justice muttered in annoyance at where the little speedster's eyes seemed to gravitate.

"Okay, okay boys calm down," Liberty Girl as she practically pried the youngest member of the team away from the newest member. "Don't mind them, I don't think either of them even talked to a girl before joining this team. I'm Liberty Girl."

She shook Lady Justice's hand as well and even though she had just chided Impulse for the same thing she couldn't help but take a quick glance down as well. Though her reaction was a quick frown at how much more...developed this girl seemed to be than her.

"Very nice to meet you..." Lady Justice began to say before she trailed off while looking over Liberty Girl's uniform. "Didn't...I see this costume in a Cole's magazine?"

The more petite heroine let out an annoyed sigh as she pulled her hand back.

"Yes! It's a freaking Halloween costume!" she shouted in frustration. "I've been hearing that for the last couple months now! It's all I could afford, alright? I mean do you know how hard it is to just _make_ a superhero costume?"

"Yes," she stated matter-of-factly. "It's my hobby."

Liberty Girl's mood instantly changed from frustrated to intrigued as her eyes seemed to sparkle up a bit in interest.

"Really?" she squealed.

"Oh yes. You should see the closet in her house," Ultragirl remarked. "_Filled_ with different superhero costumes."

"That...is...AWESOME!" the smaller girl cried out as she moved closer to Lady Justice. "Do you think you could make me a _real_ superhero costume? Please, please, please?"

"Well I suppose I could," she admitted, stepping back slightly. "I can't really make good use of them myself, so if you'd like to try them out, I'd be happy to help."

"YES!" Liberty Girl shouted with a fist pump before she tackle hugged the other heroine. "Thank you so much! I won't be a laughing stock anymore!"

"And I won't be shot at anymore!" Lady Justice responded, giving her own fist pump.

"Yeah!" the black haired girl said automatically then processed that sentence. "Wait. What?"

"Nothing! It's a metaphor! An inside joke!"

Liberty Girl gave her an odd look for a second but then shook her head to clear that thought before she wrapped an arm around Lady Justice's shoulders and started to lead her out of the room.

"So what ideas do you have for my new costume? 'Cause I'd really like to keep the red, white and blue themes with the stars to fit my Liberty Girl name, you know? I mean I know it's kinda Wonder Womanish but I don't think she'd mind, do you?" she started to ramble.

Whatever response Lady Justice gave was muffled by the fact that they had already walked out of the room. An action soon followed by Kid Devil and Impulse as they went in the opposite direction to explore more of the tower. Once the room had been cleared out of only herself and Ultragirl, Siren let out a rather stressful sigh and leaned against the back of the couch for support.

"I don't think I can do this," she confessed.

"Do what?" Ultragirl asked, looking over at her friend with a raised eyebrow.

"Lead this team. I mean when we went to the tryouts I thought maybe I'd _join_ a Titan's team I never thought I'd be _leading_ one!" she exclaimed then sighed again. "I just don't think I can do it."

The blonde's expression soften as she leaned against the couch as well then wrapped an arm around her friend's shoulders and gently began to rub her bare left arm in a comforting manner.

"Come on, don't sell yourself short like that," she tried to cheer her up. "Honestly, out of everyone on this team I can't think of a better person to lead them."

"What about you?" Siren asked her with a questioning look.

"Me? You serious? You know I'm _much_ too headstrong for that. And the others just don't seem like they have your amount of level headedness and forceful personality to pull everyone together."

"'Forceful personality'? Is that a nice way to say I'm bossy?" she demanded, giving Ultragirl an annoyed glare.

"It _means_ you have the strength of character to pull us all together in the heat of battle and make sure we all make it out alive," she clarified.

Siren sighed once again before she leaned over and gently laid her head on Ultragirl's shoulder for support.

"I hope you're right," she muttered. "I really hope you are."

( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - ) ( - )

Much like it's Chicago counterpart, the main room of the new Titans Mid-West tower was almost empty save for two of it's members, Sparrow and Phantom. While the other three had taken the opportunity to explore the city itself, Sparrow stayed behind to make sure the most crucial piece of equipment in the tower was working at peek efficiency: the television. According to Cyborg he had hooked them up with the most up-to-date, state-of-the-art satellite and digital equipment that would allow them to get just about every channel they could ever want.

And yet, somehow, there was _still_ nothing on.

"What is it with this place?" Sparrow suddenly screamed, kicking her right foot on the coffee table. "Even the TV is boring out here!"

"I don't know I find it kind of...nice," Phantom revealed as he allowed himself to sink into the couch a bit more. "Shadows always prefer stillness."

She glared at him. "Well, that's good for _you_ maybe but in case you haven't noticed my powers are more like fireworks and like them I need to get out there and burn bright! I became a hero to help people and fight the baddies and do all those exciting things! Not just sit around and try to find something to watch on TV."

"You could have gone with the others to explore the city," he retorted.

"Yeah I guess," she sighed and as she picked up the remote again. "I guess I'm still just trying to get over the fact that I'm _in_ Des Moines before I start 'exploring' it." She glanced over at him again. "So why didn't _you_ go with them?"

His body suddenly tensed and had his face been visible it might have looked just a bit flustered as he started to stammer slightly.

"I...just...didn't think you should be alone it the new tower is all," he tried to explain. "We're not sure if all the security systems are working yet so someone could break in quite easily."

"Uh huh," Sparrow nodded, not really buying that story. "Well I appreciate the concern but I'm a big girl and I can take care of myself."

"You proved that much on the obstacle course."

"That's right. I did," she remarked a bit smugly before a more genuine smile appeared on her face as she looked at him. "Still, thanks for looking out for me."

"It's not a problem," Phantom replied sincerely. "I'm sure you would have done the same for me."

"Hey, we're a team now, right? That's what we do. Besides I'd be a pretty crappy leader if I didn't look after my teammates."

"Right. Teammate," he repeated almost somberly.

The room fell silent again as Sparrow left the TV on one of the many music video channels that for once was actually playing music videos. It wasn't anything she was a great fan of but it was enough to help her relax and get her head bopping. Phantom, on the other hand, hated the prepackaged, poppy, bubblegum music with a passion, but kept that opinion to himself as it was nice to see the girl a little more relaxed in these surroundings. Still, he would have slipped out of the room in the nearest shadow had it not been for the well timed arrival of Miss Martian, Tin Man and Tigress. All three of them were chatting happily amongst themselves and carrying many souvenirs from the various tourist attractions around town, including T-shirts and ball caps.

But the two most notable pieces of clothing belong to Tigress.

"Are you actually wearing pants? And shoes?" Sparrow asked in complete amazement.

"Yes," Tigress replied rather irritably.

It was true. While she still had on the normal black sports bra of her costume, the bikini bottoms had been replaced with a pair of white stripped, black break away pants with a hole hastily cut out of the back for her tail. Her usually bare and clawed feet were covered by a pair of matching black and white tennis shoes. Sparrow looked this new ensemble of hers up and down and couldn't help but crack a smirk.

"And _why_ are you wearing those?" she prodded.

"You know that whole 'No Shirt. No Shoes. No Service' thing?" the catgirl asked.

The black haired girl nodded.

"Well, it turns out that they take that kind of seriously around here. And despite not saying anything about pants, they get _really_ uptight if you're not wearing any."

"So we made a quick stop by one of the local Smarty Marts here to pick her up some pants and shoes," Miss Martian interjected. "And we got to try out lots of different outfits while we're there too! It was so much fun!"

"That is why I am carrying all of these bags," Tin Man remarked, holding up two, rather large armfuls of Smarty Mart bags.

"Didn't waste any time in using that Titans Express card we got, huh?" Sparrow chuckled.

Miss Martian frowned a bit. "Is it bad that I did that?"

"Nah it's what we got it for. But next time take me with you and I'll show you some _real_ shopping," she remarked with an almost dangerous glint in her eyes.

"Perhaps it would be best if I sat that next round out," Tin Man said mostly to himself as he started to inch away from the two girls.

"GAAAAHH!" Tigress suddenly shouted as she ripped off the break away pants and tossed them aside. "Oh that's _sooooo_ much better!"

She then walked over to the couch and plopped herself down between Sparrow and Phantom then proceeded to kick off her shoes and rest her feet on the coffee table. She crossed her arms behind her head and leaned back into the couch with a low purring sound.

"I tell ya, people think I dress like this," she gestured to her sport bra and bikini bottom, "to be provocative but it's really out of necessity. Do you have any idea how hot you can get when you're body's covered with fur?"

"None whatsoever," Phantom muttered a bit dejectedly as he rest his shadow covered chin on his hand.

Their team bonding moment was brought to an abrupt halt when the alarm suddenly started sounding and bright red lights flashed across the room. A wide grin spread across Sparrow's face as she leapt over the back of the couch and looked over at Phantom.

"Looks like the alarms work!" she exclaimed excitedly. "Now let's see what kind of trouble's out there."

The others all nodded in agreement and they raced over to the main console to find the cause of the alarm. Sparrow quickly claimed the seat in front of the station and first shut off the sirens and lights before she pulled up a map of the city with a small flashing light on it.

"Seems like one of the banks is being robbed," she mused as she typed in a sequence of codes. "If I can pull up the security cameras in the bank I can see who we're dealing with."

A second later the screen shifted to a surprisingly clear, color picture of a goateed man in a black and white super suit with a light bulb on the chest threatening the tellers and customers.

"Who is that?" Miss Martian asked, pointing to the screen.

"Dunno," Sparrow shook her head.

Suddenly the security footage shrank and profile picture of the villain in question filled up a majority of the screen.

"What did you do?" Tigress asked her.

"I didn't do anything. It just did it on it's own!"

"It is designed with instant recognition software," Tin Man explained. "Anytime a known villain appears in this city the computer will automatically pull up his or her's profile so that we will know who exactly we are up against."

"Huh. That's kinda cool actually," Sparrow remarked. "I suppose Cyborg told you this?"

"No. The computer did," he started matter-of-factly.

"Riiiiight," the brightly colored heroine scoffed.

"Hey's an alien A.I., I think he can do that sort of stuff," Tigress retorted.

"Anyway," Sparrow muttered as she looked at the screen again. "Apparently this is Dr. Light, one of the lower tier Titans villains. And apparently he has a real phobia of the Titans. Probably came here cause he thought none of them would bother him here."

"Well who's up for going down there and showing that whack job he's totally wrong about that part?" Tigress asked with a sly grin.

The rest of Titans Mid-West all looked between themselves before their smiles matched that of the feisty feline's and Sparrow jumped to her feet once again.

"Titans...GO!" she proclaimed proudly.

Upon their leader's command, the new Titans banded together and ran towards the exit, more than ready to face their first threat together as a team.

**The End...For Now.**

**Author's Notes: **First of all I have to thank my friend Zearth for helping me with part of this fic. You see Lady Justice is his character and while he no doubt would let me just use her on my own, no one knows her little quirks better than him and so he co-wrote that part with me. Despite some...issues with WordPerfect and MSN Messenger while writing I think it came out quite well. Hope it was enjoyable for all you folk as well.

Secondly, I feel I should apologize to the people of Iowa and Des Moines in particular. I didn't mean for Sparrow to have such a bitch fit about moving out there but it just seemed liked how the character should react to that situation. She's a big city girl and while I have no doubt Des Moines is a lovely place, it isn't exactly a major metropolitan city. Still I'm going to work on calming down her bitching about the place in later fics so she won't be that annoying "big city kid moved into a small town" trop that we see in FAR too many movies. Also I know I had her remark about tress in the Botanical Center when that's actually just full of flowers but it fits that she wouldn't know that. She doesn't have much of an interest in either.

Thirdly (wow there are a lot of numbered parts in these notes), the bit in the first scene about this "Terror Sect". Oh yes, the Terror Sect. They were introduced in my second Titans fic ever and meant to be a sort of "Anti-Titans" team as I really liked that kind of thing. You can find them in the fic "New Players on the Stage" on my profile here. I really wanted to have kind of a "seasonal" arch with them where they would battle the Titans a few times in a lot of back and fourth battles that tested the Titans as heros and individuals culminating in a massive high stakes kind of battle in a "season finale".

So what happened? Well in a word...KiGo. Yeah, here's a little secret I've been keeping, "Maternal Instinct" was meant to be just a quick, one-off story that showed how I'd put Kim and Shego together. That was five years ago. Obviously my muse latched onto that universe and decided not to let go until very recently. While I absolutely _love_ all the KP stuff I've done and, really do hope to get back to it soon, I can't help but lament the fall of my original Titans storyline. So I decided to throw that reference out there as a way to work these characters back into this new universe in a future storyline somewhere down the road.

A universe that also has Kim Possible in it. So how's _that_ for tying everything together? Of course most of the references to her have been brought up by Raven. Hmmm...I wonder why _that_ could be? ;)

Now onto the two new teams themselves. I decided to make Siren's team Titans Chicago cause I felt Chicago just gets all kind of ignored by comics in favor of New York and wanted to do some stuff there. Plus Zearth is from Chicago and he wanted me to put a team in his home town. So don't be surprised if I come to you for references buddy!

Titans Mid-West was formed because...well it _greatly_ amuses me to have a superhero team out in the Mid-West. Like Chicago it gets ignored a lot in comics cause of how peaceful the area is perceived to be. Trust me, I plan to have a lot of fun in both subverting and following that trope.

Though oddly enough I don't have _that_ much in mind with these two teams. I certainly have a few ideas floating around and definitely a full one for Titans Mid-West, but still nothing concrete at the moment. Still we'll be seeing plenty of them as well as the original Titans in these little series of mine.

'Course that will have to wait as my muse demands that for the moment I move onto the most manly thing ever to be conceived; My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic!

Wait...what?


End file.
